16,252A/N- There is an important note for all readers of 'A Million More Mistakes' at the bottom of the A/N afterwards so if you read it, don't just ignore it, ok? And because I forgot this last time...
Disclaimer for this and all chapters- As much as I may wish and pray and dream that I own Twilight, I do not and I never will because my mind is simply not capable of such genius. For now, my mind is only capable of borrowing the characters that belong to the amazing Stephenie Meyer as a boredom buster and I dream that one day I will be as successful as her… *sigh*
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The Hard Way To Learn A Lesson
Chapter 1- New Term, New… Friend?
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Bella POV
"Come on, come on!" I coaxed my old red truck as I drove closer and closer to the school. Getting up late on the first day back after spring break was not a great idea if I wanted to keep my perfect record. Which I did. But I knew that my excellent grades and spotless record were probably the causes of my lack of popularity. I mean, I didn't particularly mind that people said nasty things about me, both behind my back and to my face, but it was a bit of a bummer not having anyone there to stick up for me. Or even just to talk civilly to me. That was really all I asked of life.
I knew that there was a new girl starting today, but I didn't have high hopes for her. She was related to Edward Cullen; enough said.
Edward Cullen was the rebel of the school, the bad boy. Of course, he was the sexiest guy in the world and every girl in school would do anything for him… except for me. His stunning green eyes, strange bronze hair and shocking muscles did nothing for me at all. Sure, he was gorgeous and I'm not afraid to admit that, but you should never judge a book by its cover and I knew what was behind that cover: a player. But I seemed to be the only girl in Forks High that could actually see this. Or the only one that cared. It was a good thing that I hated the guy, though, because he sure hated me. That much had been made obvious several times, the most recent just two days before we broke up for spring break.
I sighed as I parked in my space. We didn't have aligned spaces or anything, but I had parked in this space ever since I had started here. Probably because it was the space furthest away from the school; the outcast, just like me.
I grabbed my bag and got out of my truck, starting to run through the rain that held a constant presence in Forks.
I flopped down in my seat just before the bell rang. Phew. I dug through my bag and pulled out my battered paperback copy of 'Wuthering Heights' before settling down to read throughout registration. It was lucky my tutor was an English Lit teacher.
Just a few minutes after me, Mrs Connell came through the door. "Morning class. Settle down please." There was no change in the noise level. Mrs Connell took a deep breath and yelled, "Shut up!"
Everyone fell quiet.
"Thank you," Mrs Connell said. I ignored her and stuck my nose back in my book. I was so absorbed that I didn't notice the unnatural silence that accompanied the door to the classroom creaking open and then shutting. I only paid attention to the change when a bell-like voice spoke.
"Um… sorry I'm late, Miss," it said. I looked up to see a girl stood by the door. She had short black hair that had been skilfully straightened to make it stick out in spikes and glittery blue eyes. She was thin in the extreme, small- a bit like a pixie- and wore what were clearly designer clothes. I could practically hear all of the boys in the classroom panting. I rolled my eyes; this must be the new Cullen.
"Ah. You must be Alice Cullen," Mrs Connell said, and I could tell that she was trying her hardest not to be judgemental. It looked hard and I didn't really blame her; I mean, it was only a few weeks ago that the most infamous boy in the school had thrown a brick through her car window because she gave him a well-deserved F and now his sister stood in front of her, joining her class.
"Yes," Alice replied. "Sorry about the late thing. My brother drove us today. I presume that means something to you."
"You could say that." Mrs Connell's tone was hard. She shook her head and waved a hand dismissively. "Take a seat."
Alice's beautiful eyes swept the classroom for an empty seat. From my back seat I could see almost everyone in the classroom sitting straighter, wanting her to sit next to them. For a moment, it was almost as though I could read their minds; she looks cool and she'd get them closer to Edward. I rolled my eyes and was about to start reading again, but then Alice did something that surprised me. She grinned at me and came to sit in the empty seat beside me. I blinked at her. Sorry, but in what strange parallel dimension would a Cullen choose to sit next to me?
"Hi," she said, smiling.
"Uh… hi," I muttered. I could feel the glares of my classmates on me, but I ignored them.
"Did you have a good spring break?"
"Um… yeah, I guess. It was… peaceful," I replied semi-honestly. Not so much peaceful. More like… boring and drama-free. "Did you?"
"Yes! I got to do so much shopping!" she exclaimed. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. What was it with girls and shopping? I didn't exactly fit your typical teenager (probably another cause for the lack of popularity), but I couldn't really see what girls got out of shopping anyway. Maybe Alice and I wouldn't get on that well. Especially not when she realised that the entire school hated me.
"I did go to a boarding school in Biloxi, but I didn't like it there much so my parents said I could come here with my brother," Alice continued.
"Edward," I practically growled.
"You know him?"
"I…" I trailed off. I was about to say 'hate him' but that might not have gone down too well. I decided to go for the nicest approach possible. "I know him. I am forced to sit next to him in biology." Great going, Bella. Is that really the nicest approach?
"Oh." Alice stared at me for a moment. I could have hit myself; it was okay to say that to one of his 'followers' and get beat up, but his sister? No, that was just plain rude.
"Sorry," I apologised.
"I'm going to give you some advice," she announced under her breath.
Now it was my turn to stare at her in utter bewilderment. "Why?"
"Because you look like a nice person, I'm sure we're going to be friends, and I don't want you to screw your life up," Alice replied.
"Um… okay." I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Don't date my brother. Don't talk to my brother. Hell, don't even go near my brother!" she ground her teeth together.
To say I was surprised would be an understatement. Why would I want to go near Edward Cullen? And why would he allow me to get that close? Sheesh. I guessed she would soon learn.
"Don't worry. That's never going to happen," I said after a rather long surprised pause.
"No, I mean it!" Alice exclaimed, clearly not having processed what I had said yet. "He's an arrogant pig and… wait, what?"
"I hate your brother. He is an arrogant pig. He is a player and he is disgusting. No offence intended."
"Come again?" Alice gaped at me.
"Player. It's another word for man-whor…"
"Yes, I know what you mean by player! Did you just say that you hate my brother?" She looked utterly shocked.
"Yes," I answered slowly, not sure as to whether she'd taken offense, so I added, "The feeling's mutual though."
"Mutual? As in he hates you too?" Alice asked, looking me up and down as I nodded. "I'm surprised," she continued. "You look like just his type."
I shuddered. "He has a type? I'd have thought road-kill would be his type as long as it was willing to go to bed with him." I rolled my eyes and then remembered that Alice was his sister. Again. "Sorry."
But, to my relief, she was laughing. "That is very true," she said. "And no offense taken. I can't help being related to him so as long as you don't hold it against me, I think that we're going to get on great." She grinned at me. "United by a hatred of my brother. I never thought I'd meet another girl that doesn't worship him."
Now I laughed. Maybe I had been wrong before; perhaps Alice and I could be friends after all…
"Ugh. Look at him strolling around like he owns the place. Stupid asshole." Alice dropped her fork on the table and pushing her plate of pasta away disgusted. I know- I was surprised that she sat with me too.
I turned to look in the direction that she was to see Edward walking to his usual 'cool' table with a stunning blonde girl tucked under his arm who looked like she could hyperventilate at any second. I rolled my eyes when I recognised her; Shelby Cummings from the year above us. But then again, Edward could get anyone he wanted, even if they were twenty years older.
"What is that, like, his table or something?" Alice fumed as conversation on the table that Edward sat down at suddenly ceased and everyone turned to talk to him.
"Or something," I muttered, picking at my own pasta. "I think of it more as a cult. An evil one."
Alice snorted. "So who are the jocks, and girls, he's sat with anyway?"
"His gang and his fan-club," I answered.
"He has a fan-club?" Alice quirked an eyebrow at me.
"Er… yes. And I think you and me are the only two girls not to join. I mean, some of them even have t-shirts, for crying out loud! It's like a religion. They are that close to worshipping him."
Alice laughed out loud.
"I'm not joking."
But Alice's attention was focused on Edward's table again. "Who's the blonde?"
"Jasper Hale. His sister, Rosalie, was like the female version of Edward before she graduated last year so of course he had to be in Edward's gang." I frowned. "You know, I've never actually thought about this before, but he's only got one thing in common with Edward: trouble-making. He's the quiet rebel while Edward is the attention-seeking one. And, the biggest difference, I've never seen him with a girl hanging off his arm like Edward always has. He has plenty of girls after him, obviously, but he always turns them down. Personally I think he's gay. Or emo. Or both." I stopped talking to take a sip of my milkshake.
Alice frowned. "He's gay?"
I shrugged. "Dunno. I guess I've never seen him with a guy hanging off his arm either. Why? Are you interested?" I teased.
"Of course not! He's Edward's friend!" Alice glared at me and I quickly back peddled.
"Joking, Alice."
She pulled her pasta back in front of her and started picking at it again. "What lessons do you have this afternoon?"
"Um… Trig and… oh no!"
"What?"
"Psychology," I moaned. "I hate that damn class!"
"Is it really that bad?"
"Well, the subject itself isn't that terrible, but your brother is in my class and he has this habit of trying to make my life as miserable as possible. Not to mention that the teacher, Mr Marshall, is very… passionate about his subject. He likes using us as guinea-pigs to see how the human mind works. Next I expect we'll have to look after fish or something."
"What would that prove?"
"I have absolutely no idea, but last term we had to do an hour's meditation every morning before school to see if it made us calmer. Edward used it as an excuse to be an hour late for school nearly every day."
"Well… maybe whatever you do won't be as bad as that," Alice suggested.
"When do you have psychology?"
"I don't. I don't do it."
I sighed and looked over to the 'cool table' in time to see Edward get up and tow his little friend towards the hatchet where he could dump his plateful of untouched food.
"Alert, ignorant twat approaching," I mumbled to Alice.
She looked around and her teeth ground together. And then, she stuck her foot out, tripping her brother. He dropped the tray with a clatter, the plate smashing on the floor and the food splashing all over Shelby's dress. She squealed as he steadied himself and then turned to glare at whoever had tripped him.
"Alice!" I squeaked, mortified as everyone else in the canteen turned to glare at us.
"Oops, sorry Edward," she said, beaming. "I really must watch where I leave my big feet!"
Edward glared at her and shouted, "Alice, what the hell do you think…?" And then he caught sight of me and changed his sentence, lowering his voice as he spoke. "Why are you sat with her?!"
"Her name is Bella," Alice spat. "And she's my friend."
I glowed at her words. Really? I was her friend?
"I don't care what her name is!" Edward hissed. "Are you trying to dissolve my reputation? Because it's working!"
I flushed as more and more people turned to watch the almost-silent squabble between the siblings.
"Believe it or not, Edward, your reputation isn't one to be proud of!"
Edward glared at her menacingly. The expression on his face was terrifying. And then, he turned and dragged Shelby out of the cafeteria. Everyone, including me, stared at Alice. Edward never lost an argument.
"What are you looking at?" she snapped at someone watching. Almost instantly, everyone turned their attention back to their food. Then she smiled at me and held her hand up.
And, in that one instant, two things became clear: Alice Cullen was not someone to be messed with and… Alice Cullen was my friend. I grinned back at her and slapped her hand in a high-five.
Edward POV
"Who's the new girl?" Mitchell asked, after we had got outside the cafeteria. I grimaced. Stupid Alice. Why couldn't she just stay at her stupid boarding school? Now I had to admit that my sister was sitting with the most un-cool person in the whole school. Admittedly, Bella could have been a nice person and she was stunning, but she was such a kiss-ass.
"Her name's Alice," I replied, hoping that I wouldn't be asked how I knew that.
"How do you know that?" Lindsay questioned. Why did Cole have to date that nosy cow?
"She's… um… my sister," I confessed, trying to ignore Mason's questioning glance. I knew what it meant: why has she come back?
"I didn't know you had a sister," Carter said.
I rolled my eyes. "That's because I never told you. Ugh, I have psychology this afternoon," I moaned, quickly changing the subject.
"I wonder what interesting project he's got for us this time." Mason saved me.
"If it's anything like the dum meditating thing, Mr Marshall might be found dead in his bed tonight." Connor ran his fingers through his brown hair, seemingly buried in his own thoughts- which probably consisted of trying to discover the best way of murdering Mr Marshall.
Unlike Connor, I didn't mind Mr Marshall too much. Sure he was… bizarre and well, bizarre, but he was the only teacher in the school who would let me get away with whatever I wanted. He never even sent me to the head's office and that was where I spent most of my time these days. Not because I'm always naughty, but just because I always get caught on the odd occasion…
"Maybe he'll make us look after an egg," Mitchell suggested. "I read something about a school that did that."
"Ooh!" we all mocked. "Mitchell read something!"
He flushed and shut up then.
"I guess we'll find out soon enough," I sighed as the bell rang for next period. "I just hope it's nothing too drastic."
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Haha! In your dreams Edward! XD
Wow! Guys, what a fantastic response! I honestly cannot believe it! 28 reviews for just the prologue?! I was expecting 10 or something like that, not flipping 28! Thank you so, so much! I honestly cannot tell you how thankful I am. Really.
I'd just like to tell you that I live in England and go to school in England so I have no idea what an American school is like so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes there. Feel free to point them out and I'll do my best to put it right.
Also, I am going to say this now: Bella and Edward are not going to fall into each others arms the moment they get paired. They have to experience some stuff together first, they can't fall in love just like that *clicks fingers*
Sorry if this chapter was a bit dull, but I had to introduce Alice and Jasper and some of the other characters. Emmett and Rose will be in this, but they've graduated from school so they won't be in it as much as the others.
And when Alice says she hates Edward, she doesn't really HATE him, she just doesn't like the player that he's become if that makes any sense…
For now, the title is going to stay the same. If it's going to change, I will notify you before-hand.
In the next chapter… Bella and Edward will be finding out about the project and who they are paired with! What fun! I bet you can guess their reactions to THAT… XD
Right. And now the bad news: I probably won't be able to update until Sunday or maybe even later. I am very sorry. You can threaten me all you like but it's not just me being lazy or having writers block, I honestly am very busy. I am in a play this weekend (dress rehearsal tomorrow) so yeah. And I have two fanfics and one proper story on the go so I won't be able to write all of them in my time in between so I don't know which ones will be updated and which ones won't, okay? If it's this one, consider yourselves very lucky ;)
Oh and just one more thing- I am not going to do song quotes as I did in 'A Million More Mistakes' but I'll do a little song recommendation that I was listening to while writing or something because I know some people liked that. So one of my favourite songs at the moment is 'Battlefield' by Jordin Sparks. That song rocks so much and I am listening to it right now! :D Go listen if you haven't heard it yet!
Thank you so much for all of the reviews, please continue to leave them whether you like it, love it, hate it or just WTF? IE- PLEASE REVIEW!
Thanks.
Steph
::: TO ALL READERS OF 'A MILLION MORE MISTAKES':::
I did intend to update today because of the whole 'no updating until Monday' thing, but I actually do not have the next chapter finished yet. So that will become priority and I will try my very hardest to get chapter 33 up ASAP. I might be able to do it tomorrow, but I might not so please bear with me! I am going to leave a sneak preview here because you are obviously such loyal readers to be reading this as well ;)
"She is going to be alright isn't she?" I asked quietly, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
The pause Edward left before he answered told me everything I needed to know.
"She'll probably be fine," he said, though his tone rang with uncertainty.
That is all I can give you and I am so sorry! Seriously, there are two more sentences than that so far. As I've said, it will take priority and I will try my hardest to update it tomorrow or Friday. I cannot say sorry enough times :(