DISCLAIMER: NONE OF THE TWILIGHT CHARACTERS ARE MINE! ONLY PAYTON IS MINE!

Summary: Sixteen year old Payton Gray is a shy but beautiful loner who one day gets partnered with the mysterious seventeen year old Edward Cullin in gym class and both become very good friends, which soon turns into a beautiful relationship. But Edward soon discovers she has a terrible secret, and she discovers he does too. Of course we all know Edward's secret. But what's Payton's secret?

(The only characters from the actual books/movies will be the Cullens and vampire nomads. There's a possibilty that I might include some of Bella's friends from the movie and Jacob and the other werewolves in later chapters.)

Chapter 1: Meetings

Payton groggily opened her eyes and glanced at her alarm clock. Five fourty five. She groaned and buried her face in her pillow. Payton had gotten home late from work and was forced to stay up all night to do her chores which she had finished only two hours ago.

She sat up and, tossing her covers off herself, Payton stood, stretching as she went over to her small closet and picked out an outfit for school. Payton picked out a short sleeved white shirt, overlapping it with a long sleeved black shirt and pulling on a pair of dark blue skinny jeans.

Payton sighed and went over to her dresser, picking up her skin powder and dabbing some of it on her cheek and around the corner of her left eye. She put the make up away and put on her black and white sneakers, grabbing her skateboard and backpack as she left her small room.

Payton was a short and very skiny girl with medium length dark brown hair in the back and short hair curled in in the the front. Her skin was a pale pastey white and her lips were full and pink. Payton's eyes were the first thing that caught everyone's attention when they first met her. They were a beautiful unique blue and sparkled 24/7 like no one had ever seen. She had no blemishes and she always looked so calm, shy, and peaceful unless you got her mad. If you did that, Payton wouldn't hesitate to use her usually controled strength to knock you out, and perhaps a couple teeth as well.

The girl sighed and put on her soft smile when she left her aunt's house, waving to the neighbors as she past them on her skateboard. Payton shortly arrived at her school and flipped her skateboard up, catching it with ease and putting it in her backpack. She paused, feeling eyes on her and turned around, rolling her eyes when she saw Jason William, the bully of the school, coming over to her, smirking smugly. Jason was handsom but he was too big of a jerk and an idiot for Payton's liking, and she had no idea why all the other girls melted into hands just by looking at him.

Jason came up to her, still smirking, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she stared at it in disgust, holding her note book close to her chest.

"So, Paige,-" "It's Payton." "Yeah yeah what ever. So, when should I pick you up for our date I asked you on the other day?" Jason asked, his deep voice giving Payton a headache.

Payton put a hand on her chin and put on a mock thinking look, "Hm, how about, NEVER." she frowned, grabbing Jason's sleeve with her thumb and index finger as if it were a filthy rag and removed Jason's arm from her shoulder.

Jason sneared, "What the hell do you mean 'never'? I'm Jason, the Jayster, no chick says no ta me!" he growled, snatching her wrist when Payton started to walk away. Payton gasped and whipped around, glaring at him, "Let me go you jack ass!" she snapped, raising her fist to hit him. He quickly gripped that arm too, though way too tight. Payton winced.

Unknown to both of them, the Cullens had been watching from the very beginning at their car, though none of them looked as mad as Edward. Rosalie was the only one that looked like she didn't care, instead she just leaned against the red convertable and watched the scene with an expresionless face.

Jason backed Payton up against one of the cars, using his full strength to press her into it. Payton gasped in pain, making Edward's ears twitch slightly. He growled.

Emmet looked towards him, frowning, "Edward don't." he hissed, though he knew Edward wasn't listening.

Edward concentrated on Jason, reading his thoughts, 'Who the fuck does this little bitch think she is? No one says no to me!' Jason thought.

"You listen to me bitch, your going out with me, tonight, got it?" he hissed, getting right in the girl's face.

Before Payton could say anything though, an arm came between her and Jason. She looked up and saw Edward Cullen standing near her, his arm between her and the bully, "She said, no. Now back off." he growled, glaring daggers at Jason. Jason gulped and released Payton's wrists, backing away, "Right. Um, sorry Payton!" he scrambled away, tripping a couple of times until he finally made it inside the school.

Edward sneared after him but his look softened when he turned back to Payton, "Are you alright?" he asked. Payton blushed and nodded, cradling her right wrist, "Yeah. Thanks." she said timidly, staring down at her feet. Edward frowned, "Whats wrong with your wrist?" he said, reaching out to take her wrist but she recoiled, "I-it's fine. I hurt it yesterday and Jason held it a little too hard. But don't worry, it's nothing serious." Payton lied.

Edward raised an eye brow and prodded her mind, 'Please believe me, please believe me.' she chanted.

"Just to be sure, I'd like to take you to the nurse. It'll calm my nerves." Edward mumbled, gently taking her hand. Payton nodded reluctantly and allowed him to lead her inside the school.

Edward sat near the door of the nurse's office, using his enhanced hearing to hear what was being said inside.

"Well Ms. Gray, I won't be able to check out the damage if you don't roll up your sleeve." he heard the nurse sigh.

"I know Mrs. Doame, but it's fine, really. It's not sprained or anything, it's just bruised." Payton mumbled.

"May I ask exactly how you bruised it?" Mrs. Doame asked, taking a seat in front of her. Payton gulped, unnoticed by the nurse but noticed by Edward, "I fell down the stairs at my house and my wrist bumped against the railing." Payton said, a bit hesitantly.

Mrs. Doame raised an eye brow, "And thats all that was injured? You fell down the stairs and only hurt your wrist?" she asked in disbelief.

"It was only a few steps from the bottom. I hit my wrist while I was falling." Payton explained, twidling with her fingers.

The nurse sighed, "Alright, then I'll just give you some ice to keep on your wrist. But you let me know if it's giving you any trouble alright?"

"Yes ma'am." Payton muttered.

Payton came out a few moments later holding a bag of ice to her wrist, "The nurse said I'd be fine." she smiled at Edward. Edward got up and nodded, "We'd better get going, we're already late for class." he said. Payton nodded and grabbed her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder, "Thanks a lot. I guess I'll see you around." she said, walking down the hall. Edward nodded and went off in the oposite direction.

"Ms. Gray!" the teacher snapped, standing in front of Payton. Payton's eyes opened and she sat up, "Y-yes Mr. Toren?"

narrowed his eyes and pointed to the board, "Ms. Gray, perhaps you can answer this problem. Fifteen times 'x' equals two hundred ten. What does 'x' equal?"

Payton bit her lip, "Ummm... fourteen?" she guessed. Mr. Toren nodded and walked around the room, going on about how the problem was solved. Payton sighed and stared out the window, watching the rain fall and trail down the glass like little waterfalls. Her sleeve started to slip down but she quickly pulled it up over her wrist and half of her hand.

Outside of the classroom Edward peaked through the glass window on the door, his eyes narrowing when he saw Payton hastily pulling her sleeve down.

"Don't you get hot in those clothes?" a tall brunette asked Payton. Payton turned to her and looked down at herself. Instead of the shorts that most of the girls at school prefered, Payton was wearing a pair of sweatpants that the school gave to the students for gym classes, and she wore a long sleeved white shirt under the short shirt they also gave out. She shook her head, "Not really." Payton said, shrugging.

She didn't wait for the brunette to ask any other questions and walked by her, ignoring the other girls staring at her and smirking, whispering to their friends, "I bet she cuts herself, and thats why she never wears short sleeves." she heard one girl snicker.

Payton made her way out to the gym and walked the track like all the other students had to when they were waiting for everyone else to come out of the locker rooms. She blushed when she felt eyes looking at her again and she looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Edward looking at her. Payton bit her lip and burried her hands in her pockets, her hair falling in front of her face. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the gym teacher blew the whistle. Everyone lined up against the wall and the teacher told them that they were playing badmitten and began picking the teams.

"First two teams are Costa and Viera vs Williams and Johnson. Next is Cullen and Gray vs Miller and Davis..." the coach kept announcing teams but Payton stopped listening after he called out her and Edward's names. Her heart pounded behind her chest and she heard some of the students start whispering, but she mostly heard some of Edward's 'fangirls' hissing how unfair it was that the girl with no life and no friends got to be on the same team as the god-like Edward Cullen.

As everyone went to their teams the girls that walked by Payton started nudging her ribs hard, making her wince and bite her lip.

"Are you sure you want to play badmitten with that wrist?" she heard the familiar voice of Edward ask from behind her.

Payton gasped and whipped around and looked up at Edward, giving him a slight glare, "I'm beginning to think you enjoy sneaking up on me." she said.

Edward flashed a crooked smile, quickly replacing it with a serious frown, "Why didn't you tell the gym teacher about your wrist?" he demanded, crossing his arms.

Payton raised an eye brow, "Because one, I hurt my right wrist and I'm a leftly and two, it's just a bruise and doens't even hurt any more." she said, crossing her own arms.

Edward didn't look happy but nodded and tossed her a racket, facing their apponents.

Payton caught it and also faced the opposite team, serving the birdie. She was amazed how fast Edward was able to move and his breathing never seemed to become uneven. Payton dived and swung, hitting the birdie but not hard enough for it to go over the net. Edward quickly hit the birdie up again, hitting it over the net.

He heard heavy breathing from behind him and turned and saw Payton hunched over, hands on her knees and her back faced to him, "Are you alright?" he asked, going up to her. Payton's answer was falling to her knees and throwing up on the floor and her shirt.

Edward cussed and dropped his racket, running to her, putting his hands on her shoulders. Payton coughed and spat out the last of the bile before everything went black. Edward wrinkled his nose at the horrible smell of vomit and stopped breathing.

"Out of the way!" the gym coach snapped, pushing through the croud of kids to get to Payton and Edward. Edward picked her up bridal style, "I'll take her to the nurse." he said and was already out the door, not waiting for the teacher to aprove or not.

Payton groaned and cracked her eyes open, blinking once she saw that she was staring at the ceiling of her bed room. She head the sound of dripping water and then felt something cold and damp placed on her forehead, "I see you're finally awake."

She glanced to her side and smiled softly, "If I didn't know better I'd say you're stalking me Edward." she smirked.

Edward chuckled, "Well, you're aunt's at work and the nurse said you weren't well enough to be left alone, so I offered to stay with you at your house until she gets back." he explained softly.

"What happened?" Payton asked, attempting to sit up but was gently pushed back down by Edward, "The doctor said you shouldn't be getting up. And as for your question, we were in gym class and I guess you got too hot from all the clothing you were wearing. When I got you to the nurse you had a high fever, but I think it's gone down now, but the nurse said that you should stay home for a few days." he explained.

Payton's eyes widened, "Stay home? But we have that big test in biology! How am I going to know what to study?" she demanded, slightly panicked.

"Relax." Edward chuckled, "If you want I can come over for a few hours every day until you can come back to school and help you with what we learned in class." he offered.

Payton blinked and shook her head, "No. You don't have to do that, I'm fine, I can make it to school." she said stubbornly.

Edward rolled his eyes, "Payton when you tried to get up earlier you barely made it off the bed and nearly fell on the floor." he sighed.

Payton looked up at him in confusion, "Earlier? What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I'm not surprised you don't remember. You were half asleep at the time." Edward chuckled, glancing at the door when he heard the front door open and close, "Sounds like your aunt's home." he said, standing. A few moments later a worried looking forty year old woman came in. She was thin and had long black hair tied up in a bun, green eyes, thin weathered lips, and tan skin. She had a lot of make up on, all of it noticable but she still looked beatiful, "Payton, sweetie, are you alright? The school called me at the office earlier, I tried to get here as fast as I could." the woman came up to the teenagers and sat on the edge of Payton's bed, smiling gratefuly at Edward, "Thank you so much young man for watching after her." she said, placing a hand on Payton's head.

Edward smiled, "It was no problem at all ma'am." he said.

"Please, call me Emma." the woman chuckled.

Edward nodded, "Well, I'd better get going before my parents get worried. I'll see you later Payton." he said, waving as he left the room. The second that she heard the front door close, Emma tightened her grip on Payton's head.

A/N: Anyone guess Payton's secret yet? If so, don't say it but good job :D If not, too bad, you'll have to keep reading. XP