"Inside all of us is hope. Inside all of us is fear. Inside all of us is adventure. Inside all of is ... a wild thing."

Where The New Kids Arrive

There was something odd about the new kids.

Maybe it was their dark, intimidating appearance, or how they walked in groups. Maybe it was their obvious care freeways.

Whatever it was, people were afraid.

There were eight of them; six large, dark males and two females. Both of the girls were beautiful; sexy even. But the pale skinned female was the obvious outcast. She kept her head down, her face shielded by her brown hair as her arms wrapped around herself. She would often catch the eyes of the students and when she did, something inexplicable would happen.

It was almost like she was breathing in their scents. She would inhale and her eyes would roll, like she was enjoying it. One of the males would place a protective arm around her, whispering something in her ear and she'd immediately calm.

Who were they?

I had heard rumors that new students were coming, but I was expecting kids much like ourselves. Normal. These students were not from around here, and they stuck out like a sore thumb. And yet, I found myself intrigued by their presence. Intrigued by their style, their attitude… even their lack of care.

They took a seat at one of the far tables in the cafeteria, isolating themselves. They all had a tray of food sat in front of them, food piled high as they began to eat like starved animals.

All but her.

She only stared at her food, grimacing from time to time as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Her mahogany hair fell in front of her face and she used her thin hands to tuck the loose strands behind her ears. As her hands glided down from her head, she gripped her jacket and pulled it closer to herself.

The boy next to her looked down at her unsure presence, pushing her tray closer to her. She spared him one dark, anguished glance before sighing and reaching for an apple, hesitant of the red fruit. She looked up briefly from the table and her eyes locked on mine. They were a glorious brown; deep, haunting and seemed to hold almost too much knowledge. Too much pain.

Her mouth twitched, slowly moving into a light grin and I felt my own lips follow the same motion. A light shade of pink touched her cheeks, her eyes moving from mine and back down to her food. She brought the apple to her luscious, red lips. Her mouth opened, and she sunk her white teeth into the fruit.

How I wished to be that fruit; to have her lips on me, to feast upon me.

I wanted her hands to caress my skin, to touch every part of me. I wanted to cover her with sweet kisses and memorize her with my fingertips. I wanted her; every part of her.

As if reading my thoughts, she looked up towards me again, blushing as my smile grew bigger. Perhaps she was interested in me as well. I raised my palm up from the table, my fingers giving a little wave. Her cheeks flamed and her eyes flashed back down to the tray of food in front of her.

Her lips were caught in her teeth, as if she was trying to stop herself from smiling. She must have laughed because the large boy beside her glanced once towards her face before glaring at me. His dark eyes tightened, his jaw locked and just at that one look, I felt myself starting to panic. His large hands turned into fists and his body shook.

She then put a hand on his arm, her lips vibrating as his eyes clamped shut, words continuing to fall from her lips. The others at his table noticed this and a few turned to look at me, glaring, before finally turning away - not caring enough to continue staring at me.

My eyes travelled back to the boy and girl. He was eating again, carelessly shoving the artificial school food into his mouth. She was staring out the window, a longing look on her face.

How I wished to take her outside, to dance in the rain with her, to kiss her in my meadow. I didn't even know her name and already I wanted to do things with her that I never thought were possible.

I had never been attracted to many of the girls here, and yet I found myself being almost pulled to her. Like gravity.

"Are you a cat?"a rough voice beside me asked. I wasn't sure if I had gone insane or not. Looking at so much beauty obviously couldn't be good for a person. I felt my eyebrows scrunch up, aware of the bodies around me as my head snapped to the person who had spoken.

"What?" I questioned Emmett as he stole my stale chocolate chip cookie. He brought it to his mouth, and easily stuck the whole thing in.

"I asked, are you cat?" he said once more, his voice muffled from the cookie.

"A cat? Why would I be a cat?" I frowned, trying hard to decipher the meaning behind his words, his thought process, and his ADHD.

"You were staring for like, five minutes without blinking. Only cats do that," Emmett pointed out, stealing someone else's cookies.

"That's not true. Lots of marine animals don't blink at all. Unlike the Shark, who when closing his mouth on his prey will close its eyes in order to keep them protected from his dying meal," Alice said whilst flipping through a magazine. Emmett stared at her like she'd just pulled a sword out of a stone.

"How do you know this niner?" Emmett asked and she shrugged, proceeding to look interested in the world of gossip. I turned my gaze back to her. She was eating her food, simply unaware of anyone or anything.

"Edward, did you hear me?" a voice said, and I turned my eyes from the brown haired girl to the body that had spoken.

"What?"

"I said, can you give me a ride to hospital after school? I need to see dad," Alice repeated whilst putting her things away. I glanced at my watch; the bell was going to ring any second now.

"Sure." I picked up my bag as the loud ringing noise echoed in the cafeteria. Emmett and Alice soon left the table after. I stood up, following them as I looked over at her table one last time.

They were already gone.

--

I stopped dead in my tracks as I walked over the threshold to Biology. She was standing at the front of the class, speaking shyly to Mr. Banner. A smile crept over my face as I realized she'd have to sit beside me. I was the only person in the class who had a table to themselves, and I'd gratefully share it with her.

I tightened my hold on my back pack as I walked past her, making sure I somehow made myself noticed. But as I walked past her, brushing my arm casually against hers, she stiffened and pushed herself closer to the desk, I winced.

I didn't mean to make her uncomfortable. I was just trying to make her more aware of me, and that certainly wasn't the reaction I wanted. I sat at the empty desk, pulling my chair closer to the window to give her more room. When the bell rang, Mr. Banner walked to the front of his desk and stood beside her.

"Class – this is our new student, Isabella Swan. She was a past student at La Push but since the school is closing, she's now here with a few students from her school." Isabella blushed fiercely, keeping her head down.

La Push.

That would explain all the native students, but it wouldn't explain her.

Mr. Banner then instructed her to take a seat at my table, and I pulled my books over, watching as she glided to her seat timidly. I sneaked in a glance, hoping to catch the expression on her face but her attention seemed fixated on the teacher.

Then the phone rang from the front of the classroom, and after Mr. Banner had spoken into it for less than a minute, he turned to us.

"I want you all to turn to chapter eight. Read it. Answer the questions, and then do the vocabulary. I'll be back soon, so no funny business." He gave us all a warning glance before disappearing out of the room.

The noise in the room increased as people casually began to work and talk at the same time. I flipped my text book open, only to notice that Isabella didn't have one. I bit down on my lip uncertainly, before slowly nudging mine to the middle of us.

"Want to share?" I asked quietly, as her gaze flickered up to mine, the breath catching in the back of my throat at her deep brown eyes.

"Sure," she replied softly, pulling her chair closer to the middle as I felt my palms dampen. Her eyes returned back to the book, moving easily back and forth, as if she wasn't even reading them at all. Before I knew it, she was waiting for me so she could turn the page. I quickly skimmed through the book, trying to pick up the details that I would surely miss. I nodded my head and she flipped the page.

"Isabella, that's a pretty name," I wasn't going to speak, but I couldn't stand the silence. The only thing I had on my mind was her. I needed to know more about her… I wanted to know everything.

"Bella," she said suddenly, her voice determined. "I prefer Bella."

I nodded my head. "That's understandable."

"What's your name?" she questioned.

"Edward."

"I like that name."

I smiled back at her before turning my attention to the book just as she did. Something about this felt right. It was natural, normal you could say, as if we'd been together all our lives. But it wasn't enough feeling this. There were things I wanted to know.

"Why did your school close down?" I asked her, and without looking up she answered.

"There wasn't enough funding down on the reservation. It's harder getting money with the elders still around, and most of them are in retirement. A lot of the people there had to move, because it's hard owning land when you can't pay for it." She looked at me every now and again, her brown doe eyes getting locked in mine.

"What about you? Can you afford to live there?" I didn't want to pry. But I couldn't stop myself, and clearly she didn't mind.

"I live with my father. I moved from Phoenix to here about five months ago, and at first I wanted to go to school here but Charlie insisted I'd be much more comfortable with familiar faces, so I enrolled at the high school in La Push." She pulled a face, making her aversion to the high school apparent.

"Charlie Swan? As in Chief Swan? He's been here his whole life. I thought you said you just moved here?"

"Yeah," she nodded slowly. "I've been living with my mom since I was a baby."

"What happened?"

"She died," Bella said bluntly, and I felt myself drop the pen in my hands. I wasn't expecting that.

"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I shouldn't have been so nosey. It's not my business."

She surprised me by laughing softly. "It's alright. I knew it was going to happen. She had cancer, so I've had a while to get accustomed to the fact that she wasn't going to be around forever." She smiled back at me, and I let out a breath of relief. I really hadn't meant to pry so deep. She was just so unique and different.

Mr. Banner returned, silencing the room and causing everyone to hurry to write down the information needed.

"Newton – would you help me pass out the things for the flower dissection?" Mike Newton bounced out of his seat and trekked to the teacher like the pet he was. He grabbed the clear box of scalpels, walking to the tables as he passed them out to everyone. When he came to our table, he took one look at Bella and I knew that I was going to have to beat him up.

He looked at her with wide, probing eyes, his gaze intense and penetrating. He was looking at her like some freak in a circus.

I cleared my throat and his gaze flickered to mine, noticing the hard set of my jaw as he quickly stuck his hand in the box of scalpels.

"OUCH!" he yelled, pulling his hand back out. In his haste to get away from our table, he'd cut his fingers.

I didn't have time to feel smug because my attention was immediately caught again by Bella. She stiffened beside me, her teeth gritting together as she clamped her eyes shut, her hands gripping onto the table.

Mike just stood there in front of her, blood dripping onto the desk and her notebook as Mr. Banner walked over in a rush.

"You better head to the nurse."

Bella's eyes finally opened and they locked on Newton's bloody hand. It wasn't a look of shock or revulsion at seeing his hand in this state. No, it was a darker look. One full of hunger and anger and pain. A noise vibrated in her chest, almost a growl or purr.

"Bella?" I whispered as her eyes quickly rolled to me. The look was much worse than what I had seen. It was full of hatred and anguish. It was as if she was in the deepest parts of hell, being tortured in every inhumane way possible. But there was still the glint of hunger in her eyes that threw me off.

In a sick way, it was as if she wanted it.

Another growl came from her, a red ring forming around her chocolate circles. Fear started to rise in the pit of my stomach.

Her eyes rolled to the back of her head before locking on Mike as he slowly turned away from her. She quickly stood up, her arms pressed against the table, her legs tightening.

She growled one final time, her body shuddering as her lips curled over her teeth.

Why did I have the feeling that someone was going to die?

A/N -Thanks to the awesome Oxygen. and .Cucumber for making this chapter much better than it was. I would like to say now that I do not own rights to the title. And of course the Twilight characters aren't mine, but the ones who have a case of OOC are.

Right now things aren't to clear, but that will all change in the future chapters. I hope everyone will stick with me as this story unfolds.

If you like it, let me know.

(January, 20th – 2010: I've gone through and edited this story.)