Chapter Text
I sat in the back seat of my mother's car, my curly chocolate hair danced in the warm breeze that came in through the open window that I looked out of at my beloved city passing by, my heart aching a little at the thought of leaving it behind. But I didn't have time to regret my decision to leave home. Yes, I would miss Phoenix. I would miss the heat, I would miss the desert, and I would miss my loving, erratic, harebrained mother. And her new husband, Phil. But, they wanted to venture and go on the road. So, I decided to spend time with my father.
This was a good thing in my mind. I never got to see him.
The car stopped at the terminal, and my little family stepped out of the car. Mom was holding back tears over my departure, so I moved forward to wrap her in a hug, as Phil let us be and moved to get my luggage from the trunk.
"Ma, I'm not going away to die, I'll see you in a few months," I reassured my crying mother.
"I know, baby, ignore me. I'm just really going to miss you," Mom let out a dramatic sob, letting go of me, planting a kiss on my cheek. "Now, go before I change my mind."
I kissed her one last time before hugging Phil goodbye, and taking my bags.
"Bye, Bella." He smiled and waving at me, I felt as though he had grown to think of me as his own.
I had only ever flown by myself one time, when I had gone to my grandmother's funeral in Puerto Rico. I was only fourteen and still remembered how nerve wracking it had been. Things hadn't changed, I realized as I stepped inside the busy airport, I was still terrified of flying alone.
Airports are never anyone's favorite place, it was cold and there were way too many people around rushing everywhere, and they were unpredictable. But I tried my best to rush through the slow security line. If that were even possible. I then celebrated making it past with an overpriced, but amazing, cup of coffee that I drank in a lonely corner by my gate.
My flight was on time, and soon I found myself looking down on the city I loved from the plane that would take me to Seattle, Washington. This wouldn't be my final stop, however, after a three-hour flight, I boarded a charter plane that took me to Port Angeles. It was a short and bumpy ride, and I came out of it promising myself that I wouldn't be doing that again. Next time my father would just have to pick my up in Seattle.
But, still, Port Angeles wasn't my final destination. Forks was, a little town constantly covered in clouds and rain. That is where I had exiled myself to. My own personal hell.
I walked toward the airports exit with my two small suitcases in hand, warm weather clothes were not an option, me and my mother had to replace everything I owned with winter essentials and I was left with barely anything. I would have to eventually go shopping for more, something I did not look forward to.
My father, Charlie, was waiting outside and the thought of seeing him filled my chest with anxiety. I only ever saw him two weeks out of the year when he was forced to come down to Phoenix for my birthday, now I was moving in with him indefinitely.
Nonetheless, he is my father, so I pushed every negative thought away and took a deep breath as I reached the exit and braced myself for the cold that would embrace me unwelcomely after I opened the doors. The coat I had gotten barely did anything to protect me once I was outside. The icy chill still found ways to sneak in and settle in my bones.
Dad was waiting right by the front doors. He stood leaned against his police cruiser, to the good people of Forks he was known as Chief Swan. As soon as he saw me, he rushed over, wrapping his arms around me, I was a bit taken back. He was like me; quite horrible at showing affection. But I hugged him anyway, after all, I did miss him.
"Did you get shorter, Bells," he chuckled as he pulled away, placing a hand on top of my head as if to measure my growth. Or lack of thereof.
I huffed, "No, I actually grew."
He laughed, "I couldn't tell,"
I shook my head, rolling my eyes as he grabbed my suitcases to put in the trunk. While I wasted no time in running to get into the warm car, in my rush I tripped over own feet, I looked around making sure no one was a witness to my clumsiness, before deciding that it never happened.
Inside, I shivered, putting my hands to the heater. Five seconds in the cold and I was ready to give up.
Why did I do this to myself, again? I asked myself, curious about the answer.
Dad joined me a few seconds later, and I cringed away from the cold that he brought in with him.
He grunted as he sat down, aching bones and all, before he began to pull away onto the street, "You picked a good day to come, the weathers starting to warm up a bit,"
My head snapped toward him, a look of disbelief splattered on my face, "Warm? It's freezing, I'm dying!"
He laughed at me, then suddenly stopped, "How's Amelia?"
His whole demeaner changed when he asked about my mom. She had broken his heart and taken me away on top of it.
Surely, I thought, he was still not over it.
I decided to keep my answer short, "She's good,"
"And her husband? Phillis?"
Why was he making this more painful than it has to be? "Phil's good too,"
The next hour was tiring for Me, Dad stopped asking about Mom and was mostly quiet, something my tired brain appreciated. I fell asleep half way through the drive and woke in time to be greeted by Forks welcome sign.
Hmm, population 3,020 people, I thought it'd be less.
It didn't take long after we crossed Forks boarder for Dad to reach his house, or our house, now. He pulled up into the drive way and I began to brace myself for the cold again, as he killed the engine. Immediately as I stepped out of the car after him, I began shivering in my coat.
Dad took my suitcases out of the trunk, I took the smaller one as he led the way to the front door.
I looked around our street while he unlocked the door. It was quiet, just a few crickets could be heard chirping away into the night. Every house on our street was lit, but no one was outside braving the cold. Beside me, with a click, Dad unlocked the door and pushed it open.
I almost shoved past him to get out of the cold and wet night.
He laughed at me, locking the door back up and moving up the stairs. It had been years since I had stepped foot in this house, but it still smelled the same, like woods and rain and strong Cuban coffee.
On the way up the stairs, my eyes lingered on the few family pictures that were hanging on the dark green wall, I tried hard not to look at them. But, my eyes stopped at our first picture as a family. Mom was so young, she was twenty when she had me and her smile was wide and bright. Beside her, Dad held me, he was looking at Mom with a look that held so much love, it made me want to cry, and baby me was smiling, my little hand wrapped around Mom's finger. We looked like a happy, little, beautiful family, but this is the house Mom had fled with me from just two years after that photo was taken. Mom was like me in the sense that she hated the cold and the rain. It added to her depression and she couldn't handle being here anymore, prompting her to leave and break Charlie's heart. I looked away and hurried up.
"I cleared some shelves off in the bathroom for you," Dad looked back at me, turning to the room on the left of the stairs.
I had forgotten I would have to share a bathroom now, "oh, right."
He opened the door and walked in, setting my bag down and putting his hands on his hips.
"The sales lady picked out the bed stuff, you're fine with white?" he asked, eyebrow raised.
"yes, thanks dad," I smiled.
He nodded and moved towards the door, "Alright, I'll let you settle."
I smiled at him as he walked out locking the door behind him. One of the best things about Dad was the fact that he didn't hover around. A trait my mother lacked but would benefit from.
Once I was on my own, I sighed, sitting on my new twin bed, taking in my new room. It was small, with a bay window that outlooked the front of the house. The walls were painted yellow, a desperate attempt from my mother to bring sunlight into the house. The mosquito net my mother had hung above my crib was tide above the bed, and the old rocking chair where she'd rock me to sleep was still in it's place by the window.
I stood, moving to put my things away in the small closet, the drizzle outside turned into a pour and I knew it would be a long night.
Forks was too loud, the rain pattering away mixed with the howling wind did not let me sleep. I tossed and turned, annoyed and frustrated. Eventually, exhaustion ignored my ears and pulled me into sleep. In the morning, I was woken up by a car door slamming shut and voices talking outside.
I groaned in annoyance, I just wanted to sleep. I began debating whether to stay in bed or not, but eventually I got up and walked over to my window to see who had woken me up. It was a woman, she was in a wheelchair talking to Charlie. Beside her was a boy around my age.
Visitors, great. I groaned.
I sighed before moving to the bathroom to brush my teeth, after I went back to my room and shoved my feet into my boots. I had slept in sweats and a hoodie, in an attempt to keep warm, despite the heat being on all night the cold still found a way to creep in.
I walked downstairs tired, grabbing my coat from its place by the door before stepping outside to greet Charlie's visitors.
"Morning, Bells. You remember Billy black?" Dad asked.
I smiled, offering my hand, "hey, yeah. You're looking good."
Billy shook my hand, smiling, a twinkle in her eyes, "Still dancing, but I'm glad you're finally here. Charlie here hasn't been able to shut up about it since your told him you were coming,"
"Okay, keep exaggerating and I'll roll you down the hill, lady," Dad rolled his eyes.
I chuckled and turned to the guy beside Billy, "Hey," I greeted, with a smile.
"Hi, I'm Jacob, we, um, we used to make mud pies when we were little," he smiled shyly.
He had a pretty smile, and beautiful long black hair that I almost envied. His dark eyes were wide with innocence.
"Oh yeah, I remember." I actually didn't, but I didn't want to make him feel bad.
Dad interrupted whatever Jacob was going to say, "so, what do you think?"
I furrowed my eyebrows, confused, "about what?"
He moved toward the truck Jacob and Billy had come in and hit it slightly with his hand, "Your homecoming present."
"No jodas!" I didn't have to drive around in his cruiser!
"Watch that mouth!" Dad joked, though he didn't care.
"this is awesome, thank you. I hope it's not a joke..."
He laughed and opened the driver's side door, "it's not, figured you didn't want your old man to drive you around in a cop car,"
"you figured right, old man," I smiled at him and pulling him in for a rare hug.
After receiving my, for once, welcomed surprise, we all retreated inside for lunch. In my case the sandwiches we had were late breakfast. Dad, Billy and Jacob then moved to the living room to catch a basketball game that I couldn't really follow along to, before Billy and Jacob' ride arrived.
We waved then off from the porch, well dad did, I wasn't about to unnecessarily leave the warmth of the inside.
I had anxiety driving to school the next day. I changed my outfit three times in the morning and tried to do something with my wild head of curls, thanking Dad sarcastically for them in my head. I tried to make something to eat, but the smell of the eggs I was making made me want to throw up and they ended up in the garbage. I paced around the living room for half an hour before I absolutely had to leave, or I was going to be late. Dad had already left and normally having the house to myself would cause some excitement in me, but I was a nervous wreck.
Finding the only high school in town was not a challenge, finding parking surprisingly was. The lot was full of students loitering around. And I let out a sigh of relief when I saw most of them had old beat up cars like mine. Though there were a few nice expensive ones that I was shocked to see.
I found a spot by the doors and quickly parked sloppily, getting out and pulling my jacket's hood over my head. I definitely didn't want attention; this is my way to act inconspicuous. Though, it proved useless when an Asian guy suddenly appeared next to me.
"Hi! You're Isabella Swan, right? The new girl," he smiled, and walked with me.
I looked around, why me? "um, yeah, it's just Bella, though."
"oh right, I'm Eric. The eyes and ears of this place. Is there anything you need? I could be your tour guide, we can set up a lunch date if your need a shoulder to cry on?" his words left his mouth fast, in my anxious state I barely caught them.
I shook my head, I didn't even know where I was walking at this point, "I'm actually a suffer in silence type, but you can help me find my way to the office?"
Do I really want him hanging around me, though? I thought after the words left my mouth.
He laughed, opening the school doors for us to walk through, and I was relieved to find it warm inside. "that's a good headline for the feature, I'm on the paper, I can give you the front page,"
Absolutely not, "oh no, if you don't mind, please don't."
"that's cool, no feature. The office's this way," he gestured down the crowded hall.
I followed Eric, who was helpful and talkative. He stayed with me as I collected my class schedule and even showed me where most of my classes were, stating that he we had a few shared classes.
When I looked at my schedule I just knew the universe was against me, I had Gym first thing in the morning, sadly followed by Trig, which thankfully it was followed by English, Lunch came in fourth period, too early in my opinion but at least Art and Spanish were last, a language I has been able to speak since I could talk and a subject too hard to fail, giving me an opening to skip it when I felt like going home early.
But my mornings got a lot worse in my opinion, who would subject me to the cruel punishment that was first period gym?
Eric walked me to the Gym, looking at me with pity. I thanked him as I walked in.
There were a few students inside, the bell had yet to ring. I decided used this time to talk to the gym coach, who's name I forgot the second it left his mouth. I asked if I could observe today, but he laughed and shook his head, telling me that I should know by now how a gym class works. This caused me to flip him off once he walked away.
Today half of the students were playing basketball, while half played Volleyball. I had been picked to play the latter, and I wasn't happy about it. Nevertheless, I stayed in the back hoping the ball would never come my way. But again, the universe laughed in my face when three minutes into the game it came flying towards me. With wide eyes I swatted my hand at it, it flew away toward the basketball players, hitting a guy on the head.
My hands flew to cover my face, and I walked over to apologize.
"I'm so sorry! I told them not to let me play," I said, he had turned and was rubbing the back of his head.
"Oh, no. It's okay... Hey, You're the new girl, Isabella, right?" he asked, giving me what I assumed was supposed to be a charming smile.
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I replied, "It's just Bella,"
He nodded, "I'm Mike,"
He offered me his hand and I awkwardly took it, "Nice to meet you,"
Just then, a girl ran over to us, "She's got a great spike, huh? Hey, you're from Arizona, right?"
"uh, Yeah." I really didn't want to keep talking to them.
"is that how you got your tan? It's beautiful, I'm Jessica, by the way." She smiled.
I looked her over, "no that's just my skin, my dad is afro Latino," I informed with a roll of my eyes.
"oh, you're the police chief's daughter right," she cocked her head.
"yup, I'll see you guys later," I wasted no more time in rushing away, not giving either of them a chance to pull me back into a conversation.
The rest of class went by painfully, I took my place in the back and thankfully the ball didn't return back to me. I suspected my teammates knew keeping the ball away from me would be the best option for them if they had a winning chance. After, I dragged myself over to trig where I mostly tuned everything out, due to the headache I was getting from Eric's talking, who decided to sit next to me. English came fast, they were reading Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette, which I had already read in my last school. Normally, I would look forward to lunch, but this time my newfound friend Jessica decided to approach me to invite me to sit with her. My inability to be rude to people unless provoked caused me to say a regretful yes and that was how I found myself seated in a crowded lunch table.
"This is Angela, Bella." Jessica gestured to the girl sitting next her.
She was a pretty Asian girl with glasses that slid off her face every few seconds.
I went to say hi when I was suddenly blinded by a flash.
"sorry, I needed a candid for the feature." She stated, biting her lip as she looked over the picture she had taken.
I blinked at her, not knowing what to say.
Beside her Eric felt the need to speak up for me. "Feature's dead, Angela, don't bring it up again," he turned, telling me, "I got your back, baby." Before getting up and walking off.
"don't call me baby." I rolled my eyes, and turned to Angela, "I'm sorry, it's just..."
Angela shook her head, cutting me off, "No, it's okay, we'll just run another editorial on teen drinking,"
I nodded. "Hm, you know you could always go for eating disorders. . . or speedo padding on the swim team,"
Jessica raised an eyebrow at me then turned to Angela, "Kirk,"
"Right! That's exactly what I thought!" Angela laughed.
I looked away from them, taking a sip from the soda I had gotten. That's when I saw them, they were beautiful. They looked like airbrushed models who make you feel insecure when you looked inside any fashion magazine. Yet, they were better looking than any model I had ever seen in any magazines. They were sitting in the farthest table of the cafeteria, in a lonely corner by the windows, not looking at anyone or even each other. All of them had dark eyes, even from where I was sitting, I could tell that beneath those eyes were purplish circles. Like they hadn't slept well in years. But that imperfection didn't take away from their beauty.
There were three beautiful guys, and two extraordinary women. One of the guys had dark hair, his skin was a pretty brown color that reminded me of my dad's. He was huge and usually that would mean scary looking, but something about his face was playful and carefree. The second guy was tall, even sitting down I could still see he had to be unusually tall, his hair was buzzed short, it seemed like a shadow on top of his head. His skin was pale, but some color seemed to be struggling to come through. The guy next to him had a pained look on his face, like he was struggling to be in the room. He was tall, but smaller than the other two guys. His hair was a golden blonde that seemed to glow.
The first girl my eyes went to was intimidating, she looked mean, but she was also otherworldly beautiful. She looked to be the tallest out of the two girls, her blonde made her look more intimidating, her skin was pale too, but with a slight warm tone to it, her color seemed unusually muted.
And then there was the last girl, she had to be the most beautiful out of all of them, I thought, with her bronze colored hair, hair that was messily curled but in a beautiful way that I tried but failed to achieve, and her fair skin. I almost gasped out loud when I saw her pink heart shaped lips and her gorgeous eyes, though they seemed to be missing some light in them. They made me surprisingly sad, where did the light go? How could I bring it back?
I turned back to Jessica, asking, "Um, who are they?"
She turned to me, then looked over at the people I had been gawking at, laughing before answering, "Those are the Cullen's, they, uh, they're Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids. They moved down from Alaska a few years ago,"
Angela joined her in explaining, "They kind of keep to themselves,"
"Yeah, cause they're all together," Jessica lowered her voice as if she was spilling a big secret, "Like together, together. . . It's weird."
"Jess! They're not actually related..." Angela shook her head.
"yeah but they lived together, its fucking weird. Okay, the blond guy's name is Jasper and he's with the tall dark-haired guy, Archie. The blonde girl, her name is Rosalie and she's with Emmett, the other guy. And then, Edythe, she's not with anyone or anything, but all the guys around here want to hook up with her. Of course, she always says no."
I nodded and turned back, looking at the beautiful family again. I was surprised to find one of them looking back at me. It was the beautiful bronze haired girl, Edythe, and I couldn't look away, her dark eyes held me. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She looked back at me, her eyebrows were furrowed in a look of confusion. She wasn't looking away and I couldn't break our eye contact. It was as if her eyes held mind captive and they had Stockholm Syndrome. Like she was trying to figure something out, but what was there to figure out about me? Our weird eye contact was broken when Archie, who was sitting next to Edythe, elbowed her, taking her attention away.
I looked away, back to Jessica. "their parents are amazing, taking in all those kids,"
Jessica looked like she didn't agree, "yeah, I guess. Dr. Cullen is really young, in her thirties. She couldn't have kids; I think neither could her wife. Rosalie and Jasper are twins they have been with them since they were little. Mrs. Cullen is their aunt." My heart soared with warmth at fact that two Sapphic women lived in this town, raising a beautiful group of kids.
"are you talking about the Cullen's?" Mike inserted himself in the conversation, sitting down in the empty seat next to me.
Jessica scoffed, "Why? Are you going to tell Bella the amount of times Edythe has turned you down?"
His face turned several shades of red before he got up and walked away muttering, "I, shut up," under his breath.
I laughed, looking back over at Edythe. Her face was turned away, but from the shape of her round cheek, she seemed to be hiding a smile.
Just then, they all got up and began walking away. It was a bizarre sight, looking at them in motion together. They walked gracefully, as if they were walking down the runway in a Fashion show in Milan. It was kind of weird.
A second later, the bell sounded through the room signaling the end of lunch. Angela and I said goodbye to Jessica and continued off to Biology together. One of the things I decided I liked about Angela was that she didn't need to talk my ear off, Angela stayed quite the whole way there. But it wasn't awkward, it was appreciated it. She led the way into the classroom, smiling back at me before taking a seat.
I looked around, my eyes finding Edythe sitting alone at a table. This time, she looked away quickly before Edythe noticed me staring. Taking a deep breath, I walked up to the Biology teacher and introduced myself.
"Welcome, Bella. I'm Mr. Banner. You can have a seat, next to miss Cullen." He gestured towards, Edythe, but he didn't have to. I hadn't forgotten her name, or her face.
I nodded, my heart falling down to my stomach.
Surely this wasn't happening to me. I thought.
I took my second-deep breath within minutes and looked toward my new lab partner. Edythe was looking back at me, but this time she didn't have a look of confusion, she seemed mad. More than mad, she was pissed.
I guess she prefers working alone.
I looked away and walked over taking to my seat without a word. Edythe moved away, causing me to look over at her. Her face wasn't angered anymore, she looked to be in pain.
She seems to go through emotions quickly...
I looked away, again, turning to Mr. Banner.
He began his class with a clap, "Alright, class, today we will be observing the behavior of Planaria, aka flatworms..." his voice faded away as I became aware of a pair of eyes on me.
So, I looked down, framing my face with my hair. The tangled curls helping my face become invisible to Edythe's burning gaze.
What was with her? I thought, becoming irritated and uncomfortable; my temper was being provoked, and I looked back up and over to Edythe.
She was looking at me, pushing me to say, "Do you think you can, I don't know, stop looking at me?"
Edythe raised an eyebrow, a small crooked smile formed on her lips and she looked away. For the rest of the class I paid no attention, I was annoyed and hungry. I didn't even want to be here anymore.
Edythe Cullen is weird, I concluded, weird and beautiful.
My first day at Forks High School sucked, needless to say. After snapping at Edythe, the bell seemed to take forever to ring, and just a second before it actually did ring, Edythe was already out of her seat and through the door before anyone else even moved or had the chance to process that they had been dismissed. I had rolled my eyes and went about my day, wanting to get it over with and go home and be reunited with my bed. But Edythe Cullen proved difficult to avoid, when I had returned to the office to return the pass, they had given me for my teachers to sign, Edythe was there. She had been arguing with the secretary about changing her fifth period biology class to anything else, and as soon as I had walked in Edythe's posture stiffened, she muttered something about enduring it and left. Not sparing me another look.
Was this all about me? Did she not like me enough that she would go out of her way to get out of being my lab partner in one class? I asked myself, Edythe confused me, I had only muttered a few words to her and even before then it seemed like Edythe hated me.
After handing the secretary my pass, I rushed away to find Edythe.
I wanted to demand to know what her problem was. She had no reason to hate me and I was not going to continue feeling like shit over a pretty girl. Though, what's new?
I didn't go out of my way to find her, but the whole way to my truck I was looking around for Edythe. It wasn't until I got to the parking lot that I saw her and three out of four of her siblings standing around an expensive looking car. I recognized it from Phil's car calendar as a Porche. It was sleek black and somehow, I thought it matched her perfectly, though I wasn't even sure who the car belonged to.
I debated marching over and making a scene in front of her family. But as I stepped forward to cross the lot, Archie looked away from his stare down with Edythe and looked right at me, causing me to freeze. He subtly shook his head at me before Edythe herself decided to look over. Her face became annoyed and with a roll of her eyes she pushed passed Archie and into the drivers' seat of the ridiculously fancy car.
"Bitch," I muttered under my breath, looking at the tinted window that concealed Edythe.
Archie's laughter caused me to look back at him, his head was thrown back his eyes closed to the sky as his shoulders shook.
Had he heard me? I asked myself before shaking my head, he was too far away to have heard me.
I turned away, I was still angry and annoyed and even a little hurt. I fought back the urge to stump my feet all the way to the truck. I didn't spare the Cullen's a second thought as I jumped in and turned it on, throwing the truck in reverse and joining the long line of cars trying to get out through the only exit.
As I waited in the line of cars, I noticed someone was causing traffic, which added to my annoyance. The fact that I was stuck close to the Cullen's didn't make it any better. But I tried not to look over at them, but from the corner of my eye I could see the rest of the Cullen's being joined by Emmett before they all got in the car. The line started moving, and I stepped off the break just as Edythe decided to back out of the lot, making me rush to step back on to the break as a burst of adrenaline shot through me. I was livid, honking at Edythe just as she made her escape in a move I had only ever seen in movies.
She was out of her mind. That's what I thought of Edythe Cullen.