Summary:
New kid at school, Bella Swan, finds trouble and love in an unlikely place… the school's choir. T rating just in case. Canon pairings. All Human. This is my first fanfic, so please be gentle with me.
Disclaimer: All characters are property of Stephenie Meyer. I'm merely happy to write alternative stories for them.
Chapter 1:
BPOV:
I groaned softly as I turned my old truck into the Forks High School parking lot. I'd banished myself to Forks to spend quality time with my dad, Charlie, after my mom married a much younger, much richer man in August and decided to tour the world. I'd only been an infrequent visitor to Forks and much preferred the warmer, drier climate of my home in Arizona. Home…. Squaring my shoulders I banished these feelings of longing and concentrated on finding a place to park.
I found a spot fairly close to the main building and walked doggedly through the drizzling rain to the main entrance, carefully keeping my eyes on the ground to watch for anything that would cause me to trip. I got my schedule and map from the office and headed down the hall toward my locker.
I felt curious eyes all around me as I hunted down the hallway. Thankfully, I found my locker and entered my locker combination with only a couple of tries. I threw my parka in, slammed the door closed, and almost ran into a blond boy with a friendly face standing there.
"Oh, hi." I stammered.
"Hi! I'm Mike Newton. You must be Isabella Swan." The boys said enthusiastically.
"I prefer, Bella. Nice to meet you, Mike." I said more normally, with relief.
"What's your first class?" He continued with a look of obvious anticipation.
After referring to my schedule, I sighed, "Spanish."
His face briefly formed a vaguely hound dog look of disappointment, but after glancing over my schedule, he nearly crowed, "Oh, but we have Biology and Gym together!" "I'll walk you to your Spanish class."
"Thanks." I muttered with relief.
In Spanish, I met three girls and a few boys who invited me to sit at lunch with them. Although, I was still trying to remember names to faces, and felt very overwhelmed, I was thankful to find some friendly people. I grew up on the fringe of one of the wealthier communities in Phoenix, where the social gaps at school were as large as the Grand Canyon. There I was a social pharaoh - a strange girl who preferred books to shopping, dating, and worshipping the sun. In fact, you wouldn't even know that I was from Arizona if I didn't tell you. No bronze skin or blond hair for me. Instead I have ridiculously pale skin and mousy brown hair. I strongly suspected that some kids at my old school called me an albino behind my back.
I made it through Trig and English and gave a sign of relief for lunch hour.
After grabbing a few things in the lunch line, I sat with the group I'd met in Spanish and the blond boy…Mike… who had helped me find my classroom. They cheerfully bombarded me with questions. It was clear that not much happened in Forks, making me much more interesting here than I would be anywhere else. As I tried to keep up with their questions, I scanned the cafeteria taking in the various students. My eyes rested on a table off to the side where an interesting group of kids sat.
My eyes first took in a big brawny guy with dark curly hair who appeared to be attacking his lunch with great gusto. A small shiver involuntarily went up my back as I watched him tear into his pizza. Next I noticed the statuesque blond sitting next to him daintily eating a salad. She looked over at the big guy with an aggravated scowl and smacked him in the back of the head. He looked up quickly with laughing eyes and then started to eat more humanely. Then my eyes touched upon a small, pixie like girl with black spiky hair. She and a tall blond boy were ignoring their lunch, preferring to sneak a few kisses when the teachers monitoring lunch hour weren't looking. Finally my eyes rested upon a boy with bronze hair. Even from a distance, I can tell that he was extremely cute. He was hurriedly but neatly eating his lunch. His eyes stared off into the distance and his leg bobbed to unknown music.
"Who are they?" I whispered almost reverently t o the girl next to me – Jessica I think her name was. She turned to follow where I was looking, but I had the distinct impression she already knew who I was referring to. "Oh, those are the Cullens and the Hales. The big guy is Emmett Cullen. He's one of our best football players. The blond is Rosalie Hale. She's dating Emmett and is Captain of the cheerleaders. Jessica paused to roll her eyes. "The short girl is Alice Cullen. She's a real trip – like a Chihuahua on crack. She's dating Jasper Hale, Rosalie's twin. He's Captain of the soccer team. Finally there's Edward Cullen. He's on the soccer team with Jasper but really prefers tinkering with music." She concluded sourly.
I took this all in. "The Cullens look so different. They're really brothers and sister?" I said doubtfully looking between the giant, the munchkin, and the handsome prince.
Jessica shrugged, "They were all adopted. Apparently their adopted mom can't have kids."
"Oh, that was really kind," I murmured as I continued to stare at Edward. As if he sensed my stare, his gaze turned to me. I gasped and dropped my eyes quickly as he caught me rudely gawking at him.
Lunch continued on as the others caught my attention with more questions. I did notice that Edward quickly dumped his tray and loped gracefully out of the cafeteria leaving his tablemates to finish their lunches.
The barrage of questions were starting to wear on my frayed nerves, so I excused myself to the restroom with the intention of finding my locker. Naturally, I took a wrong turn and got myself turned around. As I was exasperatedly tried to find my way, I heard beautiful music. Transfixed, I followed the wonderful notes. Standing on my tiptoes, I peered through the small window in the door. It was apparently a choir room by the look of the risers, music books, and piano. I gave a small gasp as I saw that it was Edward Cullen sitting at the piano in the corner of the room. I continued to listen to him play, mesmerized by his long fingers playing a complicated composition that was likely original as I didn't recognize it.
Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder. I gasped and turned around to find Alice Cullen smiling up at me. I blushed fully aware I'd been caught spying on her brother. She clapped her small hands. "Hi, I'm Alice Cullen. Are you Isabella?" she asked in a sweet, bell like voice.
I breathed out trying to steady myself, "Yes, I'm Bella."
A wicked glint entered into her eyes as she smiled. "I see you've found Edward. I've come to fetch him so he won't be late for class again. He'll get detention if he is. Edward's applying this Spring for early admittance to Julliard. "
"Julliard…wow. Well I'd better get going, or I'll be late. See you." I muttered.
"See you later, Bella. I have a strong feeling we're going to be good friends." Alice smiled impishly.