Chapter 1 - Meeting Edward Mason

Bella POV

The first time that I saw him was at school in the lunch room. I don't know why we even bothered, but I suppose it was because we were still trying desperately to fit in at Forks High School. Never eating would probably draw attention to us, the one thing that none of us needed.

"How are you doing, Jas?" I whispered. No human would have ever been able to hear it, but everybody at our table could. Which would make sense, seeing as we weren't human. And judging by the stress leaking out from Jasper, he wasn't doing so good.

"Jas?" Alice muttered, trying to get his attention. He shook his head, barely visible.

"We could go," Emmett suggested. I was about to voice my agreement when I felt somebody staring at me.

"Alice," I hissed under my breath, "somebody is staring at me. Who is it?" Alice looked up imperceptibly.

"It's the new boy," she giggled.

"New boy?"

"I think his name is Edward. Edward Mason?" I looked up sharply at her.

"Edward Mason?" I hissed. "The one that you saw?" She just blinked her giant topaz eyes at me. Alice had been having visions for at least a month about something, but she wouldn't tell me what. The only clue that I had to what she had been seeing was a quietly muttered, "Mason. Edward Mason?" after one of her visions.

I narrowed my eyes at her and flipped my head around to glare at the new boy. When I saw him I gasped.

He was beautiful. One might almost mistake him for a vampire, he was so handsome. His green eyes gave away the fact that he was human, though. In a second I took it all in, his tousled bronze hair, dazzling green eyes, and almost perfect features. The only way that he could have been more amazing would be if he was one of us. As soon as I caught his eye he flashed me a perfect, crooked smile. I could almost swear that I felt my dead heart skip a beat.

"Oh. My. God." I muttered. "Alice, your sketches didn't do him justice." I heard her giggle and Rosalie kicked me.

"Stop your ogling, Bella. You look like an idiot," she hissed. I rolled my eyes and stood up, taking my tray full of uneaten food with me. My siblings silently stood up behind me and followed me out of the cafeteria as Edward Mason watched us leave with interest.

"I'm leaving," I told Alice when we were in the hall.

"Leaving school?" She asked. Smart aleck. Like she didn't already know.

"No," I answered anyways, "I'm just going to sit in my car until class. I'll see you after school."

"See ya, Bells," Emmett called as I walked down the hallway.

In the parking lot I found my car near the back. My car was my baby, a CLK350 Cabriolet Mercedes convertible in Capri Blue Metallic. Every one of my siblings had their favorite, and mine was this. Emmett had given it to me as a peacemaking gift when he totaled my Chevy pickup truck last year playing football with Jasper. Needless to say, Jasper had won the game. Even Rose hadn't been able fix it or hide the Emmett-shaped dent in the door.

After 20 minutes I left my car to go to Biology. I was early – the only one there. It gave me time to do today's Trigonometry homework. The work was easy; I had taken the class at least a three times in different high schools. By the time the rest of the class had arrived I was done with it. As I bent down to put my math book back in my backpack, the last student entered the room. When I sat back up, I was hit with it. Like a train going at full speed or an unstoppable meteorite the smell hit me. My mouth filled with sour venom and I gripped the bottom of my chair to keep from leaping up and destroying the source. It was Edward Mason. I could hear his heartbeat from across the room, pumping his deliciously scented blood through his veins. When he saw me he smiled his crooked smile. My eyes grew wide and I clenched my jaw, trying to swallow the venom that coated my tongue and teeth. I was so focused on not killing him that I didn't even notice the conversation that he was having with Mr. Banner, the biology teacher. When Mr. Banner pointed to me, however, I got a little nervous. A quick glance around the room confirmed my worst fear: the only empty seat was next to me.

"Damn it," I muttered, so quietly that not even a vampire could have hear me. My body grew stiff as Edward started to walk towards me. His scent enveloped me, making my head spin and my breathing come in short bursts. Just when I thought that I couldn't stand it anymore, I remembered. I didn't have to breathe. Duh. Immediately I stopped and blessed relief flooded my senses. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Edward take a seat. He didn't seem to notice my hostile body language, or he tried to ignore it.

"I'm Edward," he offered. I was silent. I couldn't answer. That would require breathing, which I just couldn't do. You want to stay alive, human? I thought. Then don't talk to me.

"Bella," I managed to mumble back without ripping into his jugular. This time he seemed to take the hint, however, and didn't say anything else. I sat in tense silence as the seconds slowly ticked by. It was the longest hour that I had ever lived, and that included when I was changed by Carlisle into a vampire. Try as I might the scent wouldn't leave my nose, its alluring sweetness just outside of my grasp. Edward took notes like the excellent student that he must have been, pausing only to brush his perfect copper hair out of his eyes every few minutes. I, on the other hand, stared at the clock, willing the second hand to move faster.

When the bell rang I shot out of the classroom as fast as could be thought of as humanly possible and flew out to my car. I glared at the doors and the opened automatically, courtesy of my telekinetic powers. Throwing my books behind me with way more force than necessary into the backseat of my car did nothing to calm me down, and neither did skidding out of the parking lot leaving a strip of rubber at least 20 feet long burned into the pavement. The needle on the speedometer never went below 105 mph as I sped home.

"Carlisle!" I screamed as soon as I slammed the door open, even though I knew that he could have heard me if I had whispered.

"Bella?" he replied calmly, downstairs in the blink of an eye.

"I'm leaving," I hissed, running to my room.

"Leaving?" he asked, already in my room with me.

"Yes. I have to. Ask Alice when she gets home," I tried to explain as I grabbed up my guitar in it's case and slung my purse over my shoulder.

"Will you be back soon?" Carlisle persisted, following me out to my car, still running in the driveway. I slid into the drivers seat and looked him in the eye.

"I really don't know. Tell Esme I'm sorry." With one final look at the house I slammed my foot on the gas pedal and sped out of Forks, Washington.