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On Bella’s first day at Forks High, she felt very out of place. The only people who approached her were guys who thought she would finally be their chance to get a girlfriend, and she had little luck talking to anyone else. At lunch, she sat with four kids she had met in calculus; Mike, Eric, Jessica, and Angela.
If she was completely honest, she was not a big fan of Mike, Eric, or Jessica. Mike and Eric were too eager to talk to her, and it made her uncomfortable, and Jessica kept on giving her very sharp looks that made her jealousy apparent. Angela, however, seemed very sweet. It was quite clear to Bella the dynamic between Jessica and Angela. Jessica needed a sidekick, and Angela was too kind to stop being her friend.
She had mostly been tuning out the conversation, and had instead been looking around the cafeteria, observing the other students. Just then, the cafeteria door opened, and in came a group of beautiful teenagers.
She leaned over and whispered to the table, “Who are they?”
Jessica glanced at the now entering group and rolled her eyes. “The tiny girl with the spiky hair is Alice, the blonde girl is Rosalie, the tall buff guy is Emmett, the frightened one is Jasper, and that last one is Edward.”
Bella watched the group pass, and made eye contact with Edward, instantly feeling a rush of fear course through her.
“Why is Edward staring like that?” Bella turned to the group, trying to avert her gaze from Edward.
“Oh, I don’t know, but don’t get any ideas, apparently no one at this school is good enough for him.” Jessica scoffed, a look of discomfort crossing her face.
Bella let the subject change, and kept her head down, but she could still feel Edwards watchful stare burning into her skull.
The day flew by, and soon enough it was her last class of the day: Biology. She walked into the classroom, scanning for an open seat, but there was only one. A lump formed in her throat. The only available seat in the class was next to Edward, which made her very uncomfortable. The teacher handed her the syllabus, and as she made her way to her seat, she saw a peculiar sight.
Edward was glaring at her with fire in his eyes, and was covering his mouth and nose with his hands, looking like he had just smelled a festering dumpster. Did she smell that bad? She hadn’t noticed anything weird before. Maybe there was something gross on her clothes? She looked down and didn’t see anything.
With a grimace, she sat down, her face burning with embarrassment and shame. Who was this guy to act like she was so repulsive? She understood why Jessica had been so dismissive when talking about him earlier.
The period dragged on after that. She took notes silently while being hyper aware of Edward sitting stiffly next to her, still with a hand covering his mouth. When the bell rang, Edward got up faster than she thought was humanly possible, and sped out of the classroom.
Her feelings were hurt and all she wanted to do was rush to her truck to drive home and call her mom, but she still had to stop in the guidance counselor’s office to finalize some classes in her schedule.
When she opened the door, she saw Edward hunched over at the front desk, desperately asking, “Are you sure there’s no way I can get out of Biology? Isn’t there any class that’s open?”
The lady at the desk responded sympathetically, “I’m sorry honey, but nothing else would fit in your schedule, and you need to take Biology to graduate.”
He slammed a hand on the counter, making the woman jump. He snarled, “Fine, I guess I’ll just have to endure it.”
Edward turned around, and Bella made direct eye contact with him in shocked silence. Her mouth hung open, but she paid no mind to that. Who did this guy think he was? Everyone at this school treated him like he was royalty, but he was acting like such a jerk. Bella prided herself on her ability to blend in, what could possibly be so offensive about her?
His eyes flashed, and he stormed through the doorway where she remained frozen in place.
Blinking back tears, she turned around, no longer caring about her schedule. She could solve that tomorrow morning. The world was a little blurry, but she rushed as fast she could through the school out into the parking lot.
Right as she was getting to her truck, Angela called out, “Bella! Wait a second, what’s wrong?”
Bella didn’t want to stop, but she would feel bad ignoring Angela. She turned around and saw Angela jogging over to her, her car keys still dangling in her hand.
“Are you alright? What happened?” She asked, a concerned expression on her face.
“During my Biology class today, I had to sit next to Edward because it was the only seat available, and he looked so disgusted and left class as soon as he could. My feelings were a little hurt, but I brushed it off. I then went to go stop at the guidance counselors, and I overheard Edward begging to get out Biology. Then, when he couldn’t get out of the class, he got upset and said something about having to “endure it” which I assume means sitting next to me.” Bella wiped a little at her eyes.
“Wow, what a stuck-up jerk. I’m sorry Bella, he’s always been a little weird. I know a lot of girls are obsessed with him here, but that doesn’t make up for his behavior.” Angela frowned.
“It’s fine. I just don’t understand what I did to make him hate me so much. He’s never even talked to me.”
“Maybe you remind him of someone?” Angela suggested.
Bella shrugged. It didn’t really matter, at the end of the day it was just another thing to lay awake at night thinking about.
“Thanks for checking on me, but I should probably go. My dad will want to check in with me on how school went today.” Bella gave Angela a small smile and reached into her pocket for the keys to her decrepit old truck.
Angela waved her off, “Of course! I hope you had a good day other than that incident. Hey, you know what? I’ll write my phone number down for you just in case you ever want to reach out.”
She pulled a receipt out from her wallet and scrawled her number hastily on the back of it with a small golf pencil, then handed it to Bella. Bella was touched that Angela was showing so much kindness to her, maybe Bella would like it here after all.
Bella gave one last smile and wave to Angela before turning around and unlocking her car door, getting in, and driving back home.
It was still weird thinking of Charlie’s house as her “home”. For so long, this was a place she only visited over the summers, and those trips had gotten less frequent as the years passed. She liked her dad, even though it felt weird to call him “Dad”, and she felt a little bit of resentment at her mom from keeping her from him for so long.
Her mom, Renee, was a hare-brained woman, and was more of a sibling to Bella than a parent. Charlie, on the other hand, was born to be a dad. Her room hadn’t changed one bit since the last time she had visited, and yet the moment Bella had left Arizona, her mother had turned her room into a sewing room, a hobby which she would most likely give up in the next month.
Bella didn’t want to hold any ill will against her mother, but she felt a pang of sadness go through her as she pulled into the driveway of the lonely house. The house itself seemed bleak, as if reflecting the occupants' own feelings of loneliness. Poor Charlie had been alone here for all those years. She felt a little guilty about not trying to visit more. She honestly just wasn’t a fan of the climate of the Pacific Northwest, it was too gloomy and rainy for her. Although, it wasn’t as bad as she expected.
She turned the roaring engine off, opened the door, and nearly wiped out on the slippery pathway leading up to the entrance of the house. Of course, this was the moment her dad drove up in his police car, watching her embarrassing moment.
He rolled down the window and called out, “Are you alright?”
Bella blushed, “Yeah, the only thing hurt is my pride.”
Charlie huffed a laugh at that and stepped out of the car to join her on the pavement. They both began making their way up to the door, this time with Charlie walking cautiously behind her in case she slipped again.
Once inside, Bella went upstairs to call her mom to update her on everything at school, except for the Edward problem. Around 5:30, she went into the living room to watch TV with Charlie, who was sprawled out in his armchair. They sat in silence for a while, before Charlie awkwardly asked, “So… how was school today? Anyone give you any trouble?”
Bella debated briefly if she should bring up Edward’s weird behavior. On the one hand she wanted to learn more about him, but Charlie was the police chief of Forks. Did Edward deserve to have an angry police chief coming after him? She eventually settled on just asking about the group.
“I met a really nice girl named Angela, and I sat with her at lunch. While we were in the cafeteria, this group of kids came in, I think they were called the Cullens? Everyone acted like they were celebrities. Do you know anything about them?”
“I know their dad, Carlisle Cullen. Our jobs cross sometimes since he’s a doctor at the hospital. Him and his wife are both pretty well off, and they adopted all of those kids. They seem like good people,” Charlie explained.
This shocked Bella, “I didn’t realize they were all siblings, aren’t some of them dating each other? Isn’t that a bit weird?”
Charlie considered this for a second, before shrugging. “They never cause any mischief, and they aren’t technically related, so I don’t have anything against them. But yeah, it is a little strange.”
Bella took this information in. So Edward probably had a troubled past if he was adopted, maybe that’s why he freaked out. Angela was right, she probably reminded him of someone from the past. This made her feel a little better. Her feelings were still slightly wounded, but this explanation made it less of an attack on her.
The rest of the night passed very smoothly, and so did the rest of the week. Angela and Bella grew closer, and the events of that first day had moved to the back of her mind. Edward hadn’t been at school all week, which was strange, but not her problem. She didn’t want to have to sit with him at the lab bench, so every day he wasn’t there was a blessing.
The next Monday, he came back. Edward hadn’t been at lunch, but sure enough, when Bella walked through the door of the Biology classroom, there he was sitting at the lab bench. This time however, he acted a little more normal. When she moved stiffly to her seat and avoided eye contact, they didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but then she heard him clear his throat.
“Um, hi, I’m Edward. You’re Bella, right?” He said this while sitting hunched over, as if he was about to take off running at a sudden movement.
Why was he talking to her now? What had changed? She was still pretty mad, so she responded with a short, “Hello.”
“You just moved here from Arizona. How are you liking the weather?” He questioned.
She was starting to feel a little frustrated. Why did he care all of the sudden? And why did he know so much about her if he hated her so much?
“I’m not a big fan, I don’t like cold wet things, and this weather qualifies for that.” She said this while looking straight ahead, trying to focus on the teacher setting up a microscope at the front of the room.
“Why did you move here to Forks then?” He prodded.
Finally, her eyes snapped over to him to see him staring at her with wide eyes as golden as the taxidermied owl’s eyes behind them. This startled her out of her anger.
“Did you put in contacts? Your eyes are so much different today.” The last time she had seen him, his eyes were pitch black. She remembered them vividly due to the hatred that swam in them when he had glared at her.
Her comment seemed to remind him of his dislike for her, since he snapped, “No, and I don’t see how it would be any of your business if I was wearing contacts.”
His outburst frightened her, so she left the conversation at that. She sat silently the rest of the class, trying not to look over to him even though she knew he was staring. When the bell rang, she gathered her things and began a brisk walk back to her truck.
As she walked through the hallways, she glanced at a trophy case, and was shocked when she saw Edward staring at her following her in the reflection of the glass. She hurried her pace and tried to duck through a few groups of people to lose him, but every time she glanced back, he was still there. He was starting to seriously freak her out.
When she got to her truck, she got into it as fast as she could and drove a little faster than she would usually dare to. She kept glancing in the rear view mirror, but she didn’t see any cars following her. She still had the feeling she was being watched, so when she arrived back at the house she hurriedly locked all of the doors and windows, and then sat stationed at her bedroom window watching the forest surrounding the yard. Charlie wouldn’t be home for a few more hours, so she would have to remain alert to what was happening just in case Edward did manage to follow her.
When Charlie arrived home, she felt a sense of peace wash over her. Nothing would happen to her if she was in the home of the town’s police chief, right? Usually, she liked to sit by her window and read by herself for a few hours everyday, but this time she brought her book with her into the living room where Charlie was. Even though it was harder to concentrate with the sound of the TV, she felt comforted being in the room with her dad.
While she was getting ready for bed, her mind was going at a mile a minute. What was she going to do when she had to sit next to Edward for a whole period tomorrow? It wasn’t like she could change seats, the whole reason she was sitting there was because there were no other spots available. Maybe she would have to talk to the teacher after class to get her seat moved. It would be mortifying, but she’d rather be mortified and alive than dead.
After about an hour of lying there thinking, she finally drifted off into a fitful sleep. She kept waking up, feeling uneasy about something. She woke up and glanced at the clock around 3 am, and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep, when she saw something that almost made her heart crawl out of her throat.
Right outside of her window, holding on to the trellis that came off of the porch, was a man peering in at her. Terrified, she tried to scream but her panic was so intense that she was paralyzed and couldn’t make a sound.
After a heart stopping moment, she realized who it was. Edward. Freaking. Cullen. She sat up at lightning speed and threw off her blankets, storming over to her window and yanking it open. Sure enough, there was Edward, a look of shock on his face.
“What the hell are you doing here you absolute pervert? What is wrong with you?” She screamed in his face.
He just remained frozen there, looking as if he was the victim. “I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”
That comment made her blood boil in her veins, “You are a jerk to me at school, and then you have the audacity to show up to my house, where I live with my police chief dad, to make sure I’m safe? You are out of your mind.”
“You seem so fragile and I couldn’t stop worrying about you, I was thinking about you all night and I had to come see you.” He looked at her pleadingly.
Bile rose in Bella’s throat, she had never been so disgusted. “The last thing I need is some pervert like you to come into my life and be my “protector”. This isn’t the 1500s, I don’t need a man to watch over me. You don’t even know me, I’ve been perfectly fine all of these years before meeting you, I think I can manage now.”
The anger building in her chest finally overtook her, and she reached out of the window to shove the trellis back, watching Edward’s mouth open in shock as he fell backward onto the ground below.
When he hit the ground, it made an incredible crashing noise, waking up Charlie who raced into her room.
“Bella! Are you okay? What’s wrong?” His face was as white as a ghost.
“I woke up and he was right outside my window!” Bella pointed to the ground where Edward was scrambling to get up.
Realization crossed Charlie’s face, and his hands turned into fists, “Bella, stay here. I’ll take care of this.”
Charlie hurried out of her room and down the stairs, still in his PJs, to grab his rifle and throw open the door. He started yelling, chasing after Edward who had just managed to get the trellis off of him.
Bella’s adrenaline was beginning to wear off, and she sat down heavily on her bed, her heart still trying to break out of her ribs. Nothing like this would have happened in Arizona, but her mother would have never done what Charlie had done. She knew her dad cared about her very deeply, and even if it meant staying here in Forks, Washington, she would stay here for him. She had finally made friends, something she had never really had before. Maybe the rain wasn’t so bad if it meant she was no longer alone.