Chap 1:

Bella's POV

I walked into my eighth period honors English class excited to find out what our latest bit of reading material would be. I considered myself to be the "perfect student". I was in every honors class, got straight A's, was never late and took extra classes. In fact, I was pretty sure that with the way my high school life was going, I would soon be studying in the famous classrooms that made up the ivy-league colleges. My parents (Charlie and Renee) and I had been dreaming of Stanford University in California my entire life.

English was my favorite class. I was, as my father nicknamed me, a "bookworm". I was quiet, reserved and tended to stay away from the social scene.

One thing about Forks High that makes it unique is that to be popular, you don't just have to look good, play sports and wear the right clothes, you also (if you're a girl) need to be smart. The smarter you are the better. The most popular girls in my grade play lacrosse, wear designer clothes, have perfect hair and are in at least one honors class! I was far from the popular crowd.

My best (and nearly only) friend Angela waved to me as I walked into the classroom. I sat down beside her and we began to whisper quietly. Mostly we talked about books or school related topics, and today was no different. We were discussing the World History test we had taken a few periods before.

"Henry VIII beheaded Anne Boleyn…right?" Angela asked quietly.

"Yeah," I told her and added a question of my own, "The Black Death came from China, right?"

"I think so…" her forehead wrinkled, "But I wasn't sure about that one either."

Our dialogue was cut off when our energetic English teacher, Miss Boechline, walked in. She began to pass paper-back books around the room. I glanced at the book in front of me, and began to feel excited when I saw the title: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

"We are not only going to be reading and deeply discussing this classic tragedy," she began, "We are going to perform it in front of all your classmates!" She paused to scan our reactions, "Now please open your notebooks to the Shakespeare notes that we took yesterday."

She passed around a quick and easy pop-quiz and soon she had us open our books.

"Now, every girl in the class will try out for Juliet and every boy will try out for Romeo…we will start now," Miss Boechline scanned the room, "Edward Cullen, you will read Romeo's lines and…Bella Swan will read Juliet's! Start at Act II: Scene II line 35."

Reading with Edward was going to be interesting. Edward Cullen was very intelligent, but extremely popular. He was the leading athlete in the school and was also in every last one of my honors classes. His father was the town doctor. Edward and I used to be friends, not exactly close, but recently we had drifted apart and he began to be plain rude to me. As far as I was concerned, I hated Edward Cullen.

I read: " O Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name.

And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Edward read: " Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?"

I continued: "'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

What's Montague? It is nor hand nor foot

Nor arm nor face nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O be some other name,

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.

So Romeo would, where he not Romeo called,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name, which is no part of thee,

Take all myself."

He continued: "I take thee at thy word.

Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized:

Henceforth I never will be Romeo."

I feigned surprise: "What man art thou that thus be screened in night

So stumblest on my councel?"

He looked at me: "By name

I know not how to tell thee who I am:

My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself

Because it is an enemy to thee.

Had I it written, I would tear the word.

My mouth fell open in shock, Edward Cullen could read well…really well. It felt as if her was actually in love with me! The class must have felt it too because it took them a minute to gather their senses and we were showered with applause, that I was sure was more for Edward than for myself. Miss Boechline just smiled to herself, as if she knew something that I didn't. I made a mental note to talk to her after class. Angela smiled at me as I gratefully sank back into my seat, my cheeks flaming red.

Miss Boechline called on Angela and Ben to read next. It seemed to me that none of the other groups got the same amount of applause of the secret smile as Edward and I had received. Great, now we were going to be stuck as the leads! I felt Edward's eyes on my back for the rest of the period, he must have been upset that we were going to be starring in the play together. Well at least neither of us would enjoy it. The bell rang, and I nearly ran out of the room with Angela in pursuit, completely forgetting to talk to Miss Boechline.