"Alice, if you don't get down here in one second..."I yelled towards the top of the staircase.

"Alright geez, you're in an extremely bad mood today," the pixie called Alice chirped back.

"No you're just in an annoyingly great mood today."

We were both right, I was really irritated and she was excited, which was my cause for irritation. I had every right to be.

Not only was this going to be another bland boring day in the meaningless repetition of high school in dreary Forks, but the fact that Alice was keeping her mind shut off from me was a contributor to my oh-so-cheery temper.

She only did these things when she had had a vision and wanted to keep it from me.

"Alice come on, what did you see?"

She just shrugged and skipped her way to the car.

"And you said I was keeping you waiting, now look who's holding us up."

I held the bridge of my nose while Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper piled into the Volvo.

"You know Alice, for being so small, you are hugely frustrating."

She quickly stuck her tongue out at me, as if she needed anything else to make her look childish.

As soon as I got in, I felt a wave of calm replace my bad temper.

"Thanks, Jasper."

He responded with a curt nod. His ability to manipulate emotions came in handy when Alice kept her visions from me.

I tried in vain once again to read her mind but she successfully kept me out, translating the Magna Carta into Japanese.

I sighed and Alice grinned, knowing that once she put her mind to it, I could never find something out.


Pulling up at school, I parked into my usual spot. The mundane excitement of the arrival of the new girl was in everyone's thoughts. It didn't take much to excite the small student body here at Forks High. And with this small population, it wasn't a secret that the new girl was Isabella Swan, daughter of the police chief. To avoid getting more irritated at my life, or more correctly, my existence. I went to my first period class.


Great, another day in purgatory, one of many in my past century of life, and certainly not the last. Being frozen in time had its advantages, but I knew that if my family had the choice, we would all be under headstones right now. Not that we would let Carlisle, our father figure and adoptive father to the world, know that. It would make him suffer and regret making the decision to continue existing for us, but I know that he had done it out of compassion.

Although living, if one could call it that, unchanged for eternity makes time inconsequential, it seemed to be moving at a snail's pace today.


It didn't help that I was feeling anxiety, probably caused by Alice blocking me. The day passed uneventfully, like always, and I finally heard the bell releasing us for lunch.


I made my way down the corridors and into the lunchroom, got the lunch I would never eat, and sat at the Cullens' usual table. We had it all to ourselves since the other students seemed intimidated by us, and frankly I didn't care.

As long as their subconscious minds told them to stay away from us without them fully grasping what we were, which was vampire, then I couldn't care less.

Alice, of course, was jittery and excited.

"Ughh, Jasper can't you calm her down? She's impossibly more irksome than this morning."

Jasper just smiled and shrugged. I knew her excitement was washing over him, which helped take his mind off other things. Jasper was the newest to our clan and the newest to our "diet."

While other vampires fed off of human blood, we, and our cousins in Denali, fed off of animals, desiring more in life than just satiating our thirst. Carlisle's compassion and the fact that we didn't want to be monsters helped us adjust quickly. But Jasper had a completely different beginning than ours, and it was a daily struggle for him to be around humans.


I moved my thoughts to the others around the table. Emmett's thoughts were wrapped around the upcoming wrestling match he had planned with Jasper. Rosalie, of course, was wrapped around her own beauty. And Alice was still mentally blocking me out.


The thoughts of the other kids went into overload when the new girl made her entrance. By now I had learned that she only liked to be called Bella and she was clumsier than the average human. She was unusually pale to be coming from Phoenix, and she looked frighteningly fragile.


She came in walking with Jessica Stanley. I didn't have to read her thoughts to know how shallow she was and what her intentions were in befriending Bella. She had been fantasized into a million idiotic daydreams by these boys and Jessica was obviously trying to soak up some of the limelight.


She was also entertaining hostile thoughts and thinking daggers at Bella, since one of those boys infatuated with the new girl was her crush, Mike Newton.


As they sat down, I turned away, disgusted with myself. Since when did I care about these mundane dramas?


Yet I had a feeling that this was why my anxiety had been building. I heard Jessica's thoughts suddenly center on my family.


Of course she'd be staring at the Cullens. I do it all the time.

Jessica began informing Bella about our family.

"The new girl's getting all the details on us from Stanley."

Rosalie sighed, "Of course, this small town has nothing better to do than gossip."

I bet she's seen me and is already intimidated, with all my beauty.

Rosalie and her shallow self. When didn't the world revolve around her?


I turned my head when I heard Jessica speak my name and looked directly into the most beautiful chocolate brown eyes I had ever seen in the century I had existed.


I knew that we were both just staring at each other and that it wasn't really considered appropriate, but I couldn't tear my gaze away. There was electricity in the air and I didn't know where it had come from. I realized that I was subconsciously trying to hear her thoughts and was surprised to see that I couldn't.


I knew that they had to be on my family since she was still obviously staring, yet nothing. Jessica was right beside her and I could hear her jealous thoughts clearly. So why couldn't I hear Bella's?


I tried using my "gift" to the fullest extent, letting the thoughts of others surround me.

I have to get her number.

I don't see what everyone sees in her. She's so bland.

Why can't he stare at me that way? Or at all...


Suddenly I saw Alice's thoughts finally released, yet it gave me no comfort.

She had seen Bella falling and blacking out.


Distracted as I was, I couldn't prevent her vision from becoming reality without giving my family away for what we were and helplessly watched her fall.


I couldn't understand my feelings and reactions but all I knew was that I could not let her out of my sight.

I heard an administrator coming and quickened my pace. When I reached her, I knew the administrator was about to object.


"Sir, if I may, I am able to take her much more quickly to the hospital than waiting around for an ambulance."


I quickly and gingerly picked up Bella and didn't wait for a response.

I could hear the envy and surprise coming from various thoughts. I rushed to my Volvo with Bella and while strapping her in, her keys fell from her jacket pocket.

As I turned around, Alice appeared out of thin air with her hand out.

I'll drive it to her house before she gets home.

"Thanks, Alice."


I went to the driver's side and paused after sitting down. Bella's scent had completely infiltrated the air in the car, smelling of lilac and freesias. It was deliciously appetizing....NO. I could not and would not think of a human that way. It went against everything Carlisle had taught us. I stopped breathing and drove faster than usual to the hospital.


Reaching the emergency doors, I found Carlisle waiting.

Alice called.

I curtly nodded and got Bella out of the car and onto the stretcher Carlisle had waiting.

"Carlisle, I..."

I started to explain but was quickly cut off.

"Don't. I'm sure you have your reasons. Do you know why she blacked out?"

I shook my head and explained to him what I knew, then he whisked her away.

I stayed in the waiting room for what seemed like a lifetime, continuously rejecting phone calls from Alice. I knew that Alice had foreseen some of this, or something related. What good is a psychic sister if she won't tell you what she has seen? I started pacing the waiting room, a totally unnecessary habit I picked up from humans.

After a lifetime and a day, Carlisle finally came and got me.

"Nothing appears to be wrong, so the fall didn't impact her. Whatever contusions she has, they are from previous falls. The reason for the blackout is still unknown, but I'm sure it was just her mind protecting itself. She should be fine."


We stopped right outside her door. "Really only family is allowed to visit right now, but I know it's important for you. Keep on the lookout for Chief Swan, he has already been contacted," Carlisle said. I thanked him for everything and entered the room.


For safety reasons, she was hooked up to monitors to make sure all was well. She still looked beautiful, with her brown hair strewn about the pillow. At the precise moment I was wishing to see her chocolate brown eyes, she opened them. Uh oh.