How It All Goes Down
- Bella is about to begin a new life with her dad in Forks, Washington, a town that gets more rainfall than any other location in the U.S.
- Bella is leaving Phoenix and her mother behind. Though her mom says she doesn't have to go, Bella lies and pretends that it's what she wants.
- In Washington, Bella's dad, Charlie, picks her up at the airport and drives her to her new home. Bella and Charlie are quiet and awkward with one another, but Charlie clearly cares about his daughter – he's even bought her a cool, old vintage truck so she won't feel too stranded living in small-town Forks.
- The next day, Bella expects her first day at Forks High to be awful. She's anticipating being "the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak" (1.56). But school isn't so bad. A "definitely over-helpful boy" (1.88) name Eric leads her around.
- In the lunchroom, Bella sees the Cullen family for the first time. She describes the five Cullens' faces:
[…] devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expect to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. (1.111) - In Biology class, Bella is forced to sit next to Edward, the youngest of the Cullens. The experience is awful:
[Edward] stared at me again, meeting my eyes with the strangest expression on his face – it was hostile, furious [...]. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. Inconspicuously, I sniffed my hair. It smelled like strawberries, the scent of my favorite shampoo. It seemed an innocent enough odor. (1.141, 144) - Bella runs into Edward again in the school office, where he's trying to switch his schedule around so he can avoid having class with Bella. But then he realizes that Bella is watching him:
Edward Cullen's back stiffened, and he turned slowly to glare at me – his face was absurdly handsome – with piercing, hate-filled eyes. For an instant, I felt a thrill of genuine fear, raising the hair on my arms. The look only lasted a second, but it chilled me more than the freezing wind. (1.175) - Basically, this was Bella's worst imaginable first day at school.