Ch 1/Bella/A Misunderstanding

Mr. Banner ended his discussion on the human anatomy at the bell ring. Everyone rushed out of class, but I stayed behind as my back pack got stuck under my desk. It's obvious that this would happen to me. It has to happen to me.

I mumbled as I struggled to get the back pack strap unstuck when I felt the desk move. I whipped my head up to see Mr. Banner holding the desk up so I could get my damn bag. I shyly smiled at him and grabbed my stupid orange back pack, then thanked him and left the class room.

It had not been a good week at school or at home. I failed two exams and my "average" grades were now poor. I mean, I looked like a nerd but didn't even have the grades to make me feel better. My parents argued all week. They were giving each other the silent treatment today, which they do at least twice a month. But I don't wallow. Instead of feeling like a poor child with parents that hate each other, I just ignore them and roll my eyes at their arguing. I don't really give a crap anymore; I just wish they would not yell at each other so I could sleep. And I wish I wasn't so afraid of my father. He had the worst temper in the world. He threatened my mother with his eyes on a daily basis. He has hit her and slapped me twice for defending her. I'd never forget that day. I could still feel the sting on my cheek.

I wish Renee was the loving mother people in these situations usually had in movies. The comforting one that promised to get you out of this mess and promised that we were going to be safe one day. But she wasn't. She just cried all day. She complained that she had aged a hundred years with this life she lived and that she used to be a pageant winner when she was younger. I still remembered how she made me try out for those stupid pageants when I was a little girl. I never won. I had big brown eyes and brown hair and pale skin. I wasn't pretty enough. I didn't have green eyes like she did and I wasn't as tall as she was. She finally gave up on me.

I gave up on me.

I walked down the hall towards my locker. I heard the usual snickering as I passed Tanya's and Rosalie's lockers. They were the typical, teenage movie cliché-a pair of good blond friends who were too beautiful to be real teenagers and who had all the boys in school following them around like dogs in heat. They had been best friends since first grade and then, in middle school, Lauren and Jessica moved to our crappy town and made their group bigger and my world a lot shittier.

"Hey Swan! Looking hot today!" Tanya said and her gang of whore bags giggled. I just walked pass them looking down at my feet, as usual, using my long brown hair as a shield.

"Don't make her blush, Tanya!" I heard Rosalie say and they all laughed again.

"Yeah we can't have the Virgin Mary actually think she's hot! Right virgin Isabella," Jessica said emphasizing the word "virgin." I just bit into my lower lip, angered that I never had a good come back.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I'm the other teenage movie cliché, the nerdy looking brunette with glasses? Yet I wouldn't be good enough to be cast as that as my grades suck and I don't have the popular guy secretly dreaming about me. No, that's not my luck. And I don't cry about it, feel sad, nor am I suicidal, and I don't dress all in black and give Tanya Denali and her gang of whore bags the finger or poison their lunch. I just take it and hope for high school to be over as soon as possible.

I put my books in my locker after avoiding eye contact with anybody and go to the cafeteria. It's the worst part of my day besides gym, damn lunch. Why do I hate it? I have no where to go.

Forks, my shitty town, has grown in population in the past years and with that, it means more high school students. They still haven't expanded the school and so I never get the luxury of sitting alone. I always end up sitting with the band geeks or choir douche bags that are still cooler than me. I sit at the end of the table and they never acknowledge I'm there and that's fine with me. I don't need them to talk to me.

I take a look at the large table where the band geeks usually sit. They are less douchier than the choir folk. The table is empty and I sigh in relief. The lunch room is so full sometimes I can't even sit with them, so that's when I grab a sandwich from the lunch line and eat outside behind the school, hiding from teachers with their absurd rules that I can't "hang out" outside during lunch. I don't see them sitting in the lunch room with the rest of the animals…those bastards.

I grabbed some food and sat by myself at the large table. I celebrated internally remembering that the band geeks had some concert they had to miss school for, which meant they wouldn't be here today. I always tried to make sure I was early to lunch so I could find a place to sit, as nobody would sit with me, which was fine.

Tanya and Rosalie and the other two gang members walked in after a large crowd and grabbed water bottles. Sometimes in a blue moon, they would get a salad. They really weren't in gang, but they could've been, those evil wenches.

Emmett Cullen, the football star, walked in and sat next to Rosalie and they giggled and started making out. He was the only one besides Tanya that made Rosalie laugh and even smile. She was such a horrible human being, but Emmett was nice…I guess, but not to me. Then after them, Alice Cullen, Emmett's little sister and a junior, walked in with her hand in Jasper Hale's hand and sat at the table by Emmett and the gang of whore bags. Jasper was Rosalie's twin brother. He was blonde and had blue eyes just like her, but he was nicer than her-well, not to me, but to others around him. He was also very silent, almost scary silent. He never said anything in the one class I had with him.

Alice, well, she had never harmed me or called me names and also she was so different from the rest of them, but she sat by Tanya and was friends with Rosalie, because of Jasper, which was all enough for me to stay away from her pixie self.

Everyday, this was the routine in the lunch room.

Then there was him.

God, I couldn't even say his name in my head without blushing and feeling anger at him at the same time.

Edward Cullen…there I said it.

He was Emmett and Alice's brother. They were all foster children so that explained the closeness in age. How a group of foster kids became the popular kids, I didn't know-that doesn't happen in cliché teen movies. They were usually the emo kids with no friends. I should be the foster child in this school.

I felt like one.

Edward was the most beautiful creature in the world. He walked into the cafeteria looking at nobody and with a face that would suggest that he was in a bad mood. That's why I never crossed his path or looked him in the eyes. I would just stare at him when I was certain he couldn't see me doing it. Not that Edward Cullen ever noticed me, because he surely didn't, but after the one time my clumsy self accidently bumped into him in the hallway, I learned to keep it that way.

"Are you fucking blind? Of course you are, but, shit, learn how to fucking walk at least and use those goddamn glasses, nerd!

Ah, yes, I still remembered his sweet words and his angry, bright green eyes staring down at me as I picked my books off the floor. He didn't help me pick the books up and just walked away. Edward was a jerk and a man whore, but I still loved to stare at him.

I used him as my muse for my drawings. Oh yes, I did draw. Another stupid teenage cliché, but I loved to draw. It's the only goddamn thing I was good at. Anyway, though I could not draw the perfection of Edward's face, I tried and then I'd find my pathetic self running my fingers over his penciled lips. I rolled my eyes at myself. I couldn't be blamed it would be the only way I'd ever get to do that. I'd never had a boyfriend and my plain self wouldn't appeal to Edward. He and his friends would probably laugh at me…well they already did, but I wouldn't stand them making fun of my adoration for Edward's beauty.

Not that.

I didn't know Edward personally and all I knew was that he had stolen my homework before, made jokes about me, but most of the time didn't know I existed. And that's the way it's going to stay. It should stay that way.

Edward walked passed me, not looking my way, leaving his cologne's scent behind. My God, he even smelled good. He wore a tight dark blue long-sleeved shirt and a pair of loose jeans. His hair was bronze and a beautiful mess. He sat by Jasper and Alice, slapping Jasper on the back and then went back to staring at the floor. I wondered what he thought about that made him look so pissed.

Tanya walked to Edward and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind him and he gave her a fake smile. I stared at Edward so much I knew when he was faking a smile…yeah I knew, pathetic. I looked away; this was not the Edward I imagined when I drew. The Edward I drew didn't have beautiful Tanya Denali hanging around his neck and didn't look so pissed all the time.

I looked down at my bowl of vegetable soup, moved around some of the carrots and, after a few minutes, the cafeteria was full. Some people sat on my table, at the other end, so that's when I decided it was time to go. I didn't finish my soup, but I wasn't hungry anyway. The Cullens and The Whore Gang left, walking outside and giggling with each other. Edward lingered behind, still looking slightly pissed and staring at his feet as he walked. He was still adorable, but that look could get so annoying sometimes. He needed to cheer up. I didn't have any friends in school and I didn't look pissed at the world. He needed to grow up.

I threw my trash away and walked out to the hall when I bumped into Mrs. Walton, the assistant principal.

"Good afternoon Ms. Swan, had a good lunch?" she asked and I nodded. What the hell did she want? "I've been informed of something that you might help explaining."

Oh crap, what I do?

"I'm aware that your only 'A' is in art…is that right?"

"Um…I guess…" Yes, lady, so what? I don't care and neither should you.

"Hmm, I'm also aware that sometimes you sneak out of class and outside to the back building."

Oh. My. Shit

"I um…uh…I…," I mumbled. I wished I had more courage to tell her to back off or better yet to fuck off.

"It's okay, Isabella, we only have proof of one absence so we can't punish you for something we don't have proof of. You're a good kid who never gets in trouble. Your grades could be better, but you don't give us hell. But there is one thing I and the janitors would like you to help with. You see, there is a rather beautiful drawing on the side of the school that would look even better off the school wall."

Yep, that's me.

"It was drawn with a Sharpie marker and has a small 'B' on the side…I'm also aware you go by Bella," she said emphasizing the "B". She stayed silent and I cursed myself for being an idiot.

How was I supposed to know the damn assistant principal was a damn spy and investigator? She was seriously in the wrong profession. I could've denied it, but I was a horrible liar and I already looked guilty as hell.

"Follow me Ms. Swan, I will show you where it is and what you can do to clean it." I followed her with my head down and every time her heels would hit the ground I felt the anger boil even more. I was angry at her but mostly at myself. I sighed loudly on accident and she turned back at me, but only smiled and continued walking. Witch.

She pushed the heavy school doors open that led to the back of the school and, as we stepped outside, we both inhaled the horrible smell. We both knew what the smell was and she looked down at me and shook her head, but didn't say anything and continued walking. I didn't know if she still wanted me to follow her, but I did anyway. She was obviously looking for the source of the smell as we weren't headed to my "work of art" on the wall. We passed it. She walked a few more feet when we both heard giggling. She walked behind some large bushes and trees and the giggling ceased. I couldn't hear much and I didn't know who just got caught smoking weed. I felt sort of bad for the fools, but then as they walked out following Mrs. Walton, I ceased my pity.

Rosalie, Tanya, Emmett, Jasper minus Alice, and…Edward, with a worse look on his face than usual, walked out. They all looked like they were in deep shit and they probably were. As they walked out with their heads down, Mrs. Walton looked at me.

"Ms. Swan, thank you, but maybe another day. Go back to class for now," she said and everyone looked at me. All of their mouths fell open and they glared at me. The realization hit me hard as Tanya flipped me off and as Emmett shook his head at me. My heart raced and I swallowed hard. I wanted to say something in my defense, but nothing came out.

Oh no…they think…they….think I got them caught.

"You little bitch…," Rosalie growled lowly as they passed me. Tanya bumped into me hard causing some pain in my shoulder and for me to take a step back from the impact; she was much taller and wider than me. Edward looked down at me angry as hell, but didn't say anything. His nostrils flared and I had to look down at my feet probably looking guilty, but I just had to get away from his stare. They all dispersed into the school leaving me outside.

Oh shit, I just got the most popular group in school after me. Just when I thought my life couldn't get any more torturing, this happened to me? I hope they don't think I did this. I hope…

Rosalie already called you a bitch and you are the chief of police's daughter.

Damn…I started shaking. I don't know why I remembered my father and what angry people could do to you when they were pissed.

I had no idea what was coming for me. That's the worst part.

Not knowing.