Prologue

             Well, here we go.  Another school year; another nine months of suffering.  Each year is the same.  Same faces, same teachers, same types of classes.  Same Edward Masen.   I was named for my grandfather.  He died before I was born.  I wouldn’t mind being called Ed or Ward (just not ever Eddie), but my mom insists on Edward.  Very antiquated, but I can’t say no to Renee.

 Nothing changes in Forks, Washington.  I’ve made it to junior year and I’m still unpopular and boring as ever.  I’ve lived here since my mom moved back from Arizona to live with my grandmother.  Mom was pregnant with me after a fling with a guy named Charlie.  I finally got the name out of her on my fourteenth birthday after a temper tantrum of epic proportion.  But only the first name.  She probably doesn’t know his last name.  Not that my mom is … well you know.  She’s just… spontaneous.  Anyway, she moved back here to the rainiest, dreariest place in the United States so that Gran could help her with me.  I was just barely eight when Gran died.  The only mother I had really had was gone and I was left with Renee.  I had to grow up fast; someone had to take care of Renee. 

              My life pretty much consists of school, work, and taking care of Renee.  It sounds worse than it is.  I’m well on my way of becoming valedictorian when I graduate.  I must get that from the Charlie guy.  My mom was the popular cheerleader in school who didn’t care about grades.  I on the other hand, love getting the “A’s”.  I love being the smartest person in school.  I don’t mind the name calling by the jocks.  I’ll be the nerd, I can handle it.  It mortifies my mom though.  She doesn’t see me for what I am.  She actually thinks I’m good-looking.  I’ve tried to tell her that red hair and green eyes do not a model make.  She insists on calling my hair “bronze.”  She thinks my height is handsome.  I think it makes me stand out, so I stoop a lot.  She has an elevated opinion of me.

             I must have also gotten my clumsiness from “Charlie” too.  I am less than athletic.  Again, a thorn in Renee’s side.  She probably wishes I was more like Mike Newton, jock extraordinaire.  I work for Mike, sort of.  I have an after school job at Newton’s Sporting Goods.  Mike’s dad owns it and therefore, Mike thinks I work for him.  I let him think it, seems to make him happy and it keeps him off my back at school.  He and the rest of the “in crowd” tend to pick on me and my friends, Ben and Angela.  They call us the “Nerd Herd”.  Very original, don’t you think?   Ben and Angela started dating about six months ago.  They’ve known each other since Kindergarten and have just now realized that they “like-like” each other.  I picked up on it a couple of years ago.  I still don’t understand why it took them so long to see the obvious.  It leaves me as the third wheel sometimes.  I have a lot of time to study. 

              See why I say same old, same old.  Its Forks, nothing changes.  I can’t wait for graduation.