CoolCly reads through the Twilight series

A project CoolCly started on April 3rd, 2010 on Board 8. He does summarizing write-ups for each chapter he reads, and then a final paragraph about his thoughts.

Twilight

Preface

Barely a prologue as it was only like half a page long. But basically the character is saying she's going to die, but she's happy and she doesn't regret the choices she made that brought her to that city, Forks, and to this situation. A "hunter" smiles and walks over to kill her. That's it.

That's kind of interesting, I guess. How are we going to get to this situation?!

Chapter One: First Sight

The main character, Isabella "Bella" Swan is moving from Phoenix to a small town called Forks to live with her dad, in a self enforced "exile." She hates Forks and she hates her dad. I have no idea why though. Parents are divorced; she regrets leaving her mother alone but never clarifies why she's doing it. Anyway, moves in with the dad she hates into a house she hates in a town she hates. She is just over all rather disatisfied with her situation, even though it seems self inflicted.

She is not looking forward to starting school because in her huge school she was unpopular and she's not super hot, not athetlic and nobody likes her etc and nobody here will like her either. Basically just angsting about being a teenager. Cries herself to sleep.

Goes to school in wallows in what a loser she's going to be. Except everybody is super nice and friendly to her. She's like the most popular kid in the world. Except now she just acts annoyed that all these people deign to be her friends because she's too smart for them. Makes a point of not remembering any of their names.

Lunch time! Sits with some losers that she doesn't like even though they want to be friends with her and gets annoyed that everybody in school stares at her like she's some kind of alien. Then immediately acts hypocritical by noticing the table of inhumanely beautiful VAMPIRES across the lunch room and stares at them like they are some kind of aliens. Exposition girl next to her explains that the five of them are the Cullens and the Hales, and they all live together, moved there two years ago. But they are offlimits because two of the Cullens are with the two Hales and the fifth dude of the group, Edward Cullen, doesn't date. Apparently the girls at the school aren't good looking enough for him. Exposition girl is mad about this, obviously she got BURNED. Bella laughs at her for being such a loser and gettinged BURNED. Edward is casually looking over this whole time, and then smiles to himself when the girl gets mad about getting BURNED. He can obviously hear everything they are saying with VAMPIRE HEARING. I'm assuming the other 4 people at his table are all vampires as well as Bella describes them all as incredibly beautiful and graceful, and also pale.

But isn't this at lunch time? In the middle of the day? Why would vampires be at school? Aren't they going to burst into flames?

Oh well.

Time for class again! Bella goes to biology, and there is only one empty seat. NEXT TO HEART THROB EDWARD CULLEN! BELLA'S LUCKY DAY M I RITE?

But as she walks up, Edward looks at Bella in REVULSION! He HATES HER. Ahaha yes. He sits on the edge of his seat all class just so he can be as far from her as possible. Bella wonders if he's like this to all the girls, which is why exposition girl earlier didn't like him, and then finishes class off with the most hate filled glare ever then dashes off. Bella starts to cry but friendly dude Mike walks up and cheers her up and walks her to her next class. She decides Mike is cool and decides to remember his name. But then at the last second he says

"So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what? I've never seen him act like that."

EXCELLENT. He doesn't hate all girls, JUST HER. Bella cries some more.

As part of some check list thing for her first day Bella has to go to the school office for something, and who do you know is there? Mr. Edward Cullen! And he's trying to transfer out of Biology! But of course, Bella just reasons to herself that there's no way she could cause some dude to drop biology that fast, something else must have pissed him off in there. Then he turns around and glared at her as if he wanted her to die and then runs off again. Bella starts crying immediately and runs home.

End chapter one!

Thoughts: Haha, well that was awesome. I thought they were supposed to be in love? It's possible that Edward is faking this hate and is trying to hide/ignore love at first sight or something, but the hate feels really strong when you read it. I hope hates her forever. That'd show her. This has me interested enough to continue, at least.

The writing itself is pretty weak. The author uses a lot of adjectives and big words to try and make everything seem more intelligent or something, but comes off as pretty weak to me. She constructs sentences pretty poorly, but overall it doesn't bother me that much. The worst part is the overall "fanfic" feel it has. Just like Eragon felt like a shoe in for some dude that wanted to be a fantasy hero, Bella feels like the author is vicariously living through high school again. I think I can handle it though.

So far, I'm going to keep reading!

Chapter 2: Open Book

So for the next week after Bella's first day, Edward Cullen doesn't show up to school. She wonders if she caused it but discards the notion as the thought of making someone quit school for nothing because of her is silly. She hangs out with the other kids and makes friends and starts having a good time with them, and even remembers their names. Cool dude Mike is still hitting on her big time, though she isn't interested! Her new bff apparently likes Mike, though he hasn't noticed!

Just when Bella thought she was finally free of Edward Cullen, he shows up next monday morning! He even spends the whole lunch hour staring at Bella! Creepy. Jessica thinks this is so totally omg awesome. Then they sit next to eachother in Biology again, and Edward acts pretty friendly! Bella embarrasses herself by being a blathering idiot. Then they have to perform some lab where they look at the stages of mitosis of an onion cell through a microscope, and Bella and Edward both show off how smart they are by taking turns identifying them easily. Then Edward starts asking about why she's in town and why she hates it there. Apparently she left because her mom remarried. Bella likes the guy her mom married, Phil, but he's a minor league ball player and moves around a lot. Her mom stayed with Bella instead of travelling with Phil, but Bella could see she's unhappy. So Bella moved to Forks with her dad so that her mom would be happy. But now Bella is unhappy! Bella and Edward then agree on how UNFAIR life is.

Anyway, a big deal in this is that Edward seems really different this time. Even aside from going from being hate filled to super friendly, he appears to be a lot less pale and more healthy. Also, his eyes are "ocher", which I guess is brown. I don't think I mentioned this, but last chapter they were coal black. Soo, something has happened in the last week. My guess is he FED ON HUMAN BLOOD.

After they have a great time in biology, Edward dashes off again.

Oh yeah, earlier Bella had a conversation with her dad and she mentions that the Cullen kids seem to not fit in very much, and her dad got angry, saying how great a man Dr. Cullen is, how great of a surgeon he is and how lucky the town is to have him. also the kids are very well behaved and never give him (he's a cop) trouble, so they should be treated with respect. It seems there's been naysaying about the Cullen's before, but he'll have none of that. When Bella mentions how attractive the Cullen kids are, he just says "you should see Dr. Cullen, if he wasn't married the nurses at the hospital would go crazy". So now I assume the whole family is a bunch of vampires. VAMPIRE SURGEON? That's interesting.

Thoughts: Well, I'm a little disappointed that Edward dropped the hatred, but I'm curious about what happened to him. Honestly, I actually enjoyed reading this chapter. There was some tension during her little lab session with him with a little competition during the microscope readings. The writing actually seemed to flow pretty well. The first chapter felt flooded with unnecessary adjectives that I would notice every single page, but I really didn't feel any of that this time. It was pretty easy to read actually. Overall, this chapter was a pretty big improvement and I enjoyed it!

Chapter 3: Phenomenon

It's the start of a new and wonderful day! Unfortunately, it snowed overnight! Bella hates snow! She's normally very clumsy, so covering the world in ice can only spell trouble for her. she some how survives walking down the driveway to her truck (oh yeah, her dad bought her a 1950 beat up old truck to drive when she moved up, at first she hated the idea but now she loves it). Strangely, she doesn't have any trouble driving over the ice. Once she gets to school, she notices snow chains on her tires, which must have been why it was so easy to drive on black ice. Charlie (her dad, she always calls him by first name except to his face), must have woke up really early and put them on for her! His concern for her makes her hate him just a little bit less. Bella stands there and has a moment untill suddenly DISASTER STRIKES

She hears a loud screeching noise and looks up, and she sees a bunch of kids across the parking lot, including Edward Cullen, staring in shock behind her! She turns around to see a van hurtling across the ice, directly at her! There's no time to get out of the way! Suddenly, something hits Bella, but not from the direction she was expecting! She goes flying and hits the pavement next to the car she parked next to, and she hits her head badly on the ground. But there's no time for that, the van is STILL COMING! It slammed into Bella's truck and bounced inconveniently towards Bella's new position! This van seems to be out for Bella's blood. Bella hears somebody swear and suddenly two hands shoot out infront of her and stop the van in its place, a mere foot from Bella's face! The hands left a very noticeable dent in the van! To top things off, one of the hands LIFTS the van while the other picks Bella up and tosses her away.

Then chaos begins, everybody in the parking lot starts screaming and running in. Edward is next to Bella and starts asking about how she is. Bella wonders how Edward got to her so fast, while he, in a very serious tone, states that he had been next to her the whole time, and stares strongly at her with his gold coloured eyes (I guess ocher is gold, not brown?) Bella accepts this and then isn't even sure what she was asking him about it. VAMPIRE MIND CONTROL? I think so.

Ambulances arrive and they pull the van (and the kid in it, Tyler), out so they can get Bella on a stretcher.

HOLD IT!

Bella is SURE Edward was across the parking lot, there's no way he could have gotten to her so fast. She keeps questioning him about it, while he continues to insist he had been next to her the whole time, making full use of his powerful gold eyed stare. But Bella won'y be fooled by his VAMPIRE MIND TRICKS and eventually makes him promise to explain what happened later.

Her dad shows up since he's the Chief of Police and in small towns like this an out of control van in a parking lot calls for the Chief of Police to be dispatched. Bella gets a neck brace and put on a stretcher while JERKFACE EDWARD CULLEN GETS TO RIDE IN THE FRONT OF THE AMBULANCE.

At the hospital, Bella sees Tyler on another stretcher, with his head covered in bandages, his face is covered in cuts. He is REALLY SORRY about almost killing Bella. He was sure he was gonna kill her. Bella asks why he didn't mention killing Edward, too. Tyler didn't see Edward, though he just assumes he didn't notice Edward in the chaos. Bella finds this very suspicious though! Very suspicious indeed!

Edward then comes and visits her and acts friendly, as if he didn't just stop a hurtling van from smashing into Bella's face with his bare hands. Dr. Cullen shows up, he's super young and handsome, and he's actually pretty pleasant. He does some generic doctor stuff like checking charts and checking Bella's head to see if there's any real damage, and being concerned when she acts clumsy. He doesn't seem like a bloodthirsty vampire to me! At one point he says it sounds like she was extremely lucky. She says she's just lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me. "Oh, well, yes." Dr. Cullen agrees, though he looks away. So the doctor is in on it, whatever "it" is! Veeery suspicious. He lets Bella out with some Tylenol.

Now it's questioning time again! Bella confronts Edward about what happened in the parking lot! He seems very annoyed that she's bringing this up again; obviously he doesn't want her to realize he's a crazy ass vampire. She insists he owes her an explanation, but he says he saved her life, so he doesn't owe her anything, and insists she just hurt her head anyway and doesn't know what she's talking about. That won't deter Bella, though. She knows what she saw! She describes everything she saw, Edward stopping the van with his bare hands and lifting it, and he also slammed his shoulder into the car next to them and left a big shoulder side dent. Yet, he is unharmed! He says nobody will believe that, but Bella doesn't intend to tell anybody. This surprises Edward. I'll just write the little exchange out right here!

"Nobody will believe that, you know" "I'm not going to tell anybody" "Then why does it matter?" "It matters to me" "Can't you just thank you and get over it?" "Thank you" "You're not going to let it go, are you?" "Nope." "In that case... I hope you enjoy disappointment"

Then he dashes off in his typical Edward Cullen fashion.

Bella then sees her father and friends and goes home. Mom finds out and demands she return to her, but Bella refuses. THERE IS A MYSTERY TO BE SOLVED AND HIS NAME IS EDWARD CULLEN.

Thoughts: Well, this seemed like it was just going to be another day at school when suddenly CATASTROPHE, with EDWARD CULLEN TO THE RESCUE. It was a rather fun scene to read. It seems Edward Cullen is already in love with Bella, I suppose the first chapter was him instantly falling in love and wanting to drink her blood, so he was mad that she sat next to him cause it was so enticing to just kill her on the spot. Then he went away and ate some other poor sap so now he's good for awhile, and has even gone into PROTECTOR mode. Somehow nobody else seems to have noticed his super hero actions in broad day light, besides his family. The other vampires actually looked pretty angry that he had bothered to intervene for some mere mortal. I imagine they'll be an obstacle in the future. The other vampire kids, atleast. Vampire dad didn't seem to have a problem with it; infact, he even seemed genuinely concerned in Bella's health. I still think he seems interesting.

Overall another good chapter. I wonder what I would think of events so far if I didn't know everybody was a goddamned vampire? It'd probably be even more interesting. Too bad pop culture has ruined that for me!

Chapter 4: Invitations

It's funny that you say this is typical teen female romance drivel. I thought it had been rather focused on VAMPIRE ACTION and TEENAGE ANGST, rather than romance, so far. But good timing, because this is the chapter for you!

You see, there's a DANCE coming up! And not just any dance, but a GIRLS CHOICE DANCE. That's right, the girls ask the boys!

The chapter actually starts of with a dream; Bella has a dream every night, and it's about Edward, but he's out of her reach, and constantly moving away, on the periphery. She just can't get a hold of him before the dream ends! So she has this dream every night.

So yeah, the romance is getting piled on pretty hard this chapter.

The day after the accident, Bella tries to talk to Edward, but he just ignores her. He's back to "ignore Bella" mode, which is cool. This goes on for like a month without them talking. His eyes are also slowly turning black again. Bella hangs out with her other friends. Cool dude Mike is still hittin on Bella, along with this other dude Eric that's been creepin since chapter one too. Tyler (driver of the bella seeking van torpedo) also follows Bella around a lot now; Bella is worried she has a new "fan." Oh man, three guys are into her. Life is so hard. The three of them are all in rivalry with eachother.

So now it's time for Dance Drama. HOLD ON TO YOUR SEATS EVERYBODY.

Jessica (Bella's BFF) asks Bella if she can ask Mike to the dance; Bella doesn't care and says go for it. Mike gives Jessica the whole "i dunno let me think about it" then goes straight to Bella to tell her about it. He does this in biology, where Bella sits at a lab table next to Edward, who is still ignoring her. Bella tells him he should totally go with Jessica, it'll be awesome. This disappoints Mike, and he asks her if she's going with anybody. She on the spot makes up plans to go to Seattle that day, so she's not even going to the dance. Edward glances over and smirks. Mike gets dejected and goes and tells Jessica he'll go with her, who is ecstatic. Edward also has a conversation with Bella where he says that it's better if they just don't be friends. Bella takes this as Edward letting her down easy and gets depressed. She makes a comment about him regretting saving her life and this makes him angry, and they both storm off.

Bella eventually runs into Eric, who asks her to the dance, EVEN THOUGH ITS GIRLS CHOICE STUPID. She shuts him down and throws down the Seattle excuse again. Edward just happens to walk by and laughs.

So she gets in her truck and starts driving off, but Edward cuts her off.... and stops. He doesn't have his family yet... so he just stops there and waits for them, blocking Bella in the parking lot. Owned. A line forms behind Bella, first in line is Tyler, her last fan! Bella ignores him. But then Tyler just gets out of his running car and comes up to Bellas truck and knocks on the window. She rolls down the window and he, you guessed it, asks her to ask him to the dance! At least he didn't directly ask her to the dance like that rookie Eric did!She throws down the Seattle excuse... he actually already knows that, but he figured it was probably an excuse to dodge those losers Mike and Eric. Spot on! Even though it was an excuse, Bella tells him, sorry, she really is going out of town. "That's cool. We will have prom." That boy has balls of steel. Nearly kills a girl by driving full speed at her on a sheet of ice then turns around and pulls out these moves? Damn.

Edward's family is just filing into his car (he drives a shiny new Volvo). He's shaking with laughter since he obviously just heard Tyler's bold proclamation. Bella considers crushing that weak Volvo underneath her mighty rusttruck.

Bella then has a bunch of generic girl thoughts about how Edward isn't interested in her at all, she's so boring and plain while he is so perfect etc. Pretty boring.

Tells her dad she's going to Seattle in a week. He has some concerns about her truck making it and gas mileage etc, but gives in eventually.

Bella runs into Edward one more time, she asks him what was up with that car blocking the day before. He just says that he just wanted to give Tyler his chance too! There's banter back and forth (mostly Edward making Bella feel like an idiot), then Edward asks Bella about that Saturday, coming up a week away, you konw, the day of the spring dance - Bella asks if he thinks hes funny. Actually, he's not asking about the dance, he's a super cool vampire, he obviously doesn't have time for stuff like that. It's about the trip to Seattle! He was actually planning on making a trip there himself sometime soon, so why not give her a ride up there! This stuns Bella, She argues a little bit about how she's fine with her truck, but he eventually talks her into it. He says a line I like after asking her if her truck could make it to Seattle on one tank of gas like his car, and she says "I don't see how that is any of your business", to which he replies

"The wasting of finite resources is everyone's business."

He's an ECOLOGY VAMPIRE. Saving the environment one car trip at a time.

Anyway, Bella brings up that he said he didn't want to be friends. Edward says that they probably shouldn't be friends, not that he doesn't want to be friends. He ominously says that she really probably should stay away from him, then cheerfully says see you in class!

Thoughts: oh gawd the teen drama, i am drowning in it. sooo much of it! Well, it wasn't THAT hard to get through, but if the book was just 100% that I probably wouldn't read it. But, I have to say, I actually enjoy the stuff with Edward. While Bella is a little (or a lot) pretentious, she often says a lot of sarcastic stuff to try and hide her feelings or just to put Edward down, and Edward always laughs at whatever she just tried to do. Usually, it's not something she said to make him laugh. And I like that. I think a lot of the stuff Edward laughs at is exactly the sort of thing I would laugh at too.... So there.

It's funny how Bella threw down the Seattle excuse on those three guys, and Edward came around and STOLE HER EXCUSE AND MADE IT HIS DATE. Tyler's got game but he could learn a thing or two.

And by date I mean he's probably going to kill her and drink her blood in Seattle where nobody will ever find her. dem black eyes, they trouble

Chapter 5: Blood Type

Oh boy, a chapter titled Blood Type. In a book about vampires. This can only go somewhere good.

Bella is still reeling from the shock of Edward asking to go on a car trip with her. But it's the start of the school day so she heads to class and ends up late. Mike didn't sit next to her like usual! Though both him and Eric walk Bella to her next class anyways. The morning passes as a blur as Bella questions if Edward really did just ask her to go to Seattle with him.

Lunch time happens and she heads to the cafeteria. She notices that there's only four vampires at the usual table; Edward is missing, he must have went home. Bella gets in line for some food when suddenly Jessica, her bff, tells her that Edward Cullen is staring at her again. It turns out Edward is sitting at an empty table across the cafeteria from his family! And he waves for Bella to come over!

In the immortal words of Jessica "Does he mean you?"

Bella insists he must just need help with his biology homework or something and heads over, though she had only gotten lemonade, not any food!

Edward invites her to sit with him. Bella thinks this is different. edward says he's decided as long as he's going to hell, he might as well do it thoroughly. Bella has no idea what he's talking about. Edward laughs some more and comments about how her friends must hate him for stealing her. Undoubtedly Cool dude Mike is raging hard right about now. Bella says they'll survive. Edward says he may not give her back. Bella gulps and Edward laughs some more.

He makes a bunch more vague hints about being a bloodthirsty vampire but Bella doesn't get any of it. Then they discuss what they are; friends? Edward thinks this is funny and says sure.... though she's still better off avoiding him. He asks her what she's thinking, and she says she's trying to figure out what he is. This breaks his perfect smile for a second and he asks what her theories are. Really, they're a bunch of stupid radioactive spider and bruce wayne theories, so Bella refuses to tell him. Eventually the conversation turns to Bella making Edward promise that if he goes into Ignore Bella mode again he'll give her warning. In return he asks for one theory. She goes with radioactive spider.

Edward thinks thats incredibly weak, like wow disappointing. She's not even close. No spiders, no radioactivity, kryptonite doesn't bother him either. Bella says she'll figure it out eventually. He says she shouldnt try? Why? Because what if he's not the super hero. He could be the bad guy!

"Oh. I see. You're dangerous" This causes some reaction in Edward that's pretty hard to read. "But not bad", she adds. Edward says she's wrong.

Suddenly it's class time. Edward decides he's skipping; sometimes ditching class is healthy. Bella heads to Biology alone.

Turns out, the red cross is taking blood donations sometime soon, so the teacher decides everybody should know their blood type! Well then, I guess Edward saw this coming and didn't want to be around everybody bleeding, especially Bella. But it never gets to Bella bleeding as she practically passes out when Mike does his test and starts bleeding. So Mike (what the hell he just caused the pass out, why would they send him?) takes her to the nurses office. Edward happens by and is concerned at first, but then realizes she must have fainted at the sight of blood. He thinks this is hilarious and takes her from Mike, who tried to refuse, then carries her to the health office. Laughs at her some more. They hang out in the nurses office for a bit,Edward comments about how much Mike hates him, then Mike shows up with another kid that passed out from the blood.

Edward tells Bella to get out of the office because he can smell the blood of the kid they brought and it'll just make Bella pass out again. But actually, and I found this quite odd, Bella actually smelled the blood too and was already on her way out. Edward says people can't smell blood, but Bella claims she can, it's why she gets sick, it smells like rust and salt. Edward just stares at her with an "unfathomable expression"

Mike shows up and looks all mopey, but confirms with Bella that she's coming to this super cool beach party he's throwing this weekend. Then he glares at Edward and tells Bella he'll see her in Gym. Edward then gets permission from the nurse so that Bella can skip gym. Owned Mike, owned. Bella tries to convince Edward to come to the beach party, but he says they should probably avoid pushing Mike too much more this week, he might snap.

Edward then drives Bella home because she's obviously too weak to drive herself, though Bella resists this strongly. Edward actually plays classical music on his cd player and Bella actually recognizes it, surprising both herself and especially Edward. Apparently her mom played classical music a lot and Bella just recognizes her favourites. It's Edwards favourite too! What a coincidence. They talk about Bella's family some more, and eventually asks if Bella thinks he's scary. She says no. Then she asks him about his family. He's adopted, and he just states "his parents died many years ago." Well, that's probably not a lie. He says Carlisle and Esme are great parents, but says he has to go before she can get him to comment on his siblings, though he does mention he's skipping friday and going hiking with his brother, Emmett.

He makes one last comment that since Bella is so clumsy, while she's at the beach she should try and avoid falling into the ocean or getting run over or something, then he drives off laughing.

Thoughts: I thought this was mostly boring except for the conversation in the cafeteria. It seems that for the most part Edward considers himself a "good vampire", but he's crossing a line by talking to Bella. Like what he's doing is evil, because it very likely can't end too well for Bella. That's why he keeps saying "he's tired of being good" etc. I wonder what Emmett and Edward are going to do in the mountains? Recharge their batteries by feeding on animals or something?

Anyway, mostly boring, but I can never get enough of Edward laughing in Bella's face all the time. That's always good stuff. I don't know if this will hold out or if I am committing some kind of blasphemy in saying this, but I actually like Edward.

Well, we'll see where this goes I guess!

Chapter 6: Scary Stories

It's time for the trip to the beach! However, it's not just a pointless fun chapter like I expected. It's full of exposition.

At first they are at class on friday, and Edward has skipped with his brother Emmett just like he said. A girl that sits with Bella's friends, Lauren, makes comments to Mike when she thinks Bella isn't nearby about why doesn't Bella just sit with the Cullens from now on. So she's a jealous *****. Excellent. Mike, in his usual puppy dog beahviour, defends Bella to the death and tells Lauren that Bella is his friend and she sits with them. Poor Mike, such a nice guy, but he ain't gettin any. Unless he realizes Jessica wants him so badly. Oh well!

Bella talks with her dad about the trip, he knows everybody that's going of course and approves. Bella asks him about the place Edward said he was going camping at, though she doesn't mention that it's the Cullens specifically thats going camping. Dad's confused, and says that place isn't a good place for camping at all. Too many bears. People would only go there this time of year for hunting. Awesome. Edward is going bear hunting. Probably with his bare hands. Badass.

Bella heads to meet with her friends. As she pulls up she notices Lauren glaring at her. Mike gets Bella to drive out with him and promises her shotgun, which makes Jessica mad. Bella manages to squeeze Jessica in between them though, which makes Jessica happy but kind of annoys Mike. Yay relationship drama.

They get to the beach and it's beautiful, and they have a bonfire location from before. A group starts forming up to look at some nearby tidal pools. Bella used to come see them all the time when she was a kid and loved them, but she always used to fall into them. She remembers Edwards request that she avoid falling into the ocean, but goes anyway when Lauren makes it clear she's staying with the fire.

The pools are awesome blah blah Bella doesn't end up falling into one.

When the return to the bonfire, the group is much bigger than when the left it. Apparently a bunch of kids from the nearby reservation showed up to partay. Indians I guess. One of them smiles at Bella as she comes up. His name is Jacob Black. He's only 15, which is a couple years younger than Bella. Bella finds him beautiful. Apparently she should actually know him, his dad was the one that sold her dad her truck. She's hung out with that family a lot in the summer when she was a kid. She only remembers his older twin sisters, Rachel and Rebecca. Oh well, they hit it off and joke about the truck a little. Jacob likes to rebuild cars.

Lauren, being a jealous ***** yet again, interrupts them and asks Jacob if he knows Bella. He says he's known her since he was born, which makes her even more of a *****. She mentions to Bella how too bad it is that none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn't anyone think to invite them? Before Bella can respond, a taller, older indian boy just says The Cullens don't come here. As if to close the subject, and Bella thinks he means that they aren't allowed here. That's odd. Why would they not be allowed here? Especially since they are super powerful vampires.

Bella thinks of Edward, then thinks that Jacob is pretty inexperienced with girls. So she decideds to practice her FLIRTING. oh god. She takes Jacob on a walk and they flirt for awhile. oh boy. I've heard there is a werewolf that falls in love with her, it's probably this guy.

Bella (MASTERFULLY) steers the flirting into talking about the Cullens, and gets Jacob to talk about why the Cullens don't come here. Jacob says they aren't supposed to come to the reservation, then says oops he wasn't supposed to say that. of course.

Bella uses her allure (lol) to convince him to tell her more. He asks if she likes scary stories, she loves them! So they sit down and he spins his tale.

STORY TIME

AND BY STORY TIME I MEAN EXPOSITION TIME

Jacob's people, the Quileutes, have many legends. Some of them date back to the Flood. when Noah built his arc, the Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest treeson the mountain to survive. Another legend claims that they descended from the wolves, and that the wolves are their brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them. It's obvious from Jacob's expression that he doesn't believe these myths. Too bad for him THEY ARE ALL TRUE AND HE'S A WEREWOLF

Then there are the stories of the cold ones. There are stories of the coldones as old as the wolf legends, as well as some recent ones. But according to legend, his great grand father, the tribal elder of the time, knew some of them. He made a treaty that kept them off their land. Jacobs father is the tribal elder now.

The cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf, well actually not the wolf, but wolves that turn into men, like his ancestors. they are called werewolves. BAM CALLED IT

Bella asks, werewolves have enemies?

Only one. The cold ones are traditionally their enemies. But this pack that came into their territory in his great grandfathers time were different. They didn't hunt like others of their kind did, they weren't supposed to be dangerous. So great grandfather made a truce with them. If they would promise to stay off their land, then they wouldn't expose them to the pale faces.

He says these cold ones are civilized, but it's always dangerous for humans to be around the cold ones, so thats why they weren't allowed near the Quileutes. You never know when they might get too hungry to resist. But apparently these guys don't hunt humans, they hunt animals.

Bella: So how does this fit in with the Cullens? Are they like the cold ones from great grand fathers time?

Jacob: No. They are the same cold ones.

Bella is in awe of this story and Jacob is happy about it, though probably because he thinks she's just so absorbed in his storytelling ability rather than what he might be saying about Edward.

There's two new cold ones, actually, a male and a female. They must be the Hales. He mentions in his great grandfathers time, they already knew of the leader, Carlisle. He'd been there and gone before her people had even arrived.

Bella asks what they really are.

Blood drinkers. Vampires.

Bella is pretty freaked out by this story, Jacob just thinks it's just cause he's such an awesome story teller.

They joke around a little and he laughs that he violted the treaty. He makes her promise not to tell this story to her dad, apparently he's upset that the reservation people won't go to the hospital since Dr. Cullen started working there.

They flirt a little more and head back. Good old Mike was worried about where Bella was of course, and gets a little defensive about how close she looks with Jacob. Jacob is only 15, but when he gets his license he'll come visit Bella in town. And Bella says when her dad comes to visit his dad sometime she'll come with. Bella decides she likes Jacob, she'd like to be friends with him.

Then they head home.

Thoughts: vampires and werewolves and bears oh my

Some cool exposition. I liked the story about the cold ones. Looks like there's a bunch of history going on. Werewolves and vampires are typical enemies in fantasy stories for some reason, and it seems to be true here too. Though for some reason Carlisle has made a truce with the werewolves. This guy just keeps getting more and more interesting.

I'm not really a fan of Jacob though. Just seems like any other kid to me. I don't see why Bella would like him but not her faithful lapdog Mike. Is it the difference between a dog and a wolf? Maybe. But he's not near as cool as Edward.

I wonder about how the timeline of events have gone down. Carlisle and his kids made a truce with the werewolves like over a hundred years ago, apparently. And then left? Did they just return recently? If they had been around for awhile, I think people would have noticed. They couldn't just keep changing their names or something. Everybody knows eachother, like how Bella's dad knows all the kids she went on the beach trip with. Did they go somewhere else for a long time and just came here? Are they on an endless rotation of high school? Live in a town for three years, graduate, move to a new town, go to high school for three more years, graduate, move and go to high school again for three more years, endlessly?

Oh well. Cool story bro, but I don't like Jacob that much.

Chapter 7: Nightmares

It's reflection time for everything Bella just heard. What the heck, is Edward a vampire? She just goes straight home and tries not to think about it, goes to her room, starts listening to music on headphones and tries to fall asleep, hoping to avoid confronting this weird issue.

Turns out that wasn't a good plan.

She has a dream. She's on the edge of a forest, and seems drawn to leave it and go out, towards the sun. But Jacob Black appears, tugging her hand, pulling her back towards the blackest part of the forest. He says she needs to run! From inside the forest, she hears Mikes voice, telling her to come that way!

Jacob randomly turns into a wolf. Definitely didn't see that coming!

He faces the edge of the forest, growling. Mike tries to get Bela to run! He's always looking out for her, even in her dreams! She should throw the poor boy a bone.

Edward steps out from the trees, his eyes pure black. He beckons Bella to him. She takes a step towards him. The wolf launches himself at Edwards jugular, with Bella screaming "No!", triggering an intense fight scene where - oh wait Bella wakes up.

Well, that's close to passing out... or the exact opposite. Whatever!

She wakes up and tries to avoid the subject some more. Then boots up her antique of a computer and does what any of us would do if confronted with a dangerous mythical creature. She googles it.

After going through a bunch of irrelevant tv show and goth stuff etc, she finds some interesting stuff. First are some quotes from some reverend and Rousseau about the possibility of vampires and how all kinds of legitimate reports mention them. She then finds some interesting specific accounts of them; a filipino vampire called the Danag that worked with humans until one day a woman cut her finger and a Danag drank her dry, and some other interesting things like the Romanian Varacolaci which was beautiful and pale faced, and the Slovak Nelaps, a creature so fast and strong it could massacre an entire village in one hour.

Her favourite is the Stregoni benefici, an italian vampire said to be on the side of goodness, a mortal enemy of all evil vampires. She likes this one small entry among hundreds that claimed the existence of good vampires.

Speed, strength, beauty, pale skin, eyes shifting color all seem to be things that come up a lot.

Bella decides to go for a walk in the forest to think about it, and questions if it could be true that the Cullens are vampires. Her immediate reaction is it's impossible, but she thinks of all the things that's happened. Edward saving her life with impossible speed and strength, the eye color shifting, their captivating appearance, how they never eat (they always have food during lunch but it's ALWAYS completely untouched, like they don't even open their little milk or juice boxes), the way they talk like they are out of a hundred year old novel sometimes, the fact that Edward skipped blood typing, and the fact that Edward hadn't turned down the beach trip till he'd heard where it'd be.

She decides they have to be SOMETHING, if not vampires or Jacob's "cold ones".

But what should she do? Two options: Avoid Edward forever. She doesn't like this at all. She didn't believe he was something sinister; he'd done nothing to hurt her, and he'd even saved her life.

Bella realizes she's crazy about him, so she has to go for option two: confront him about it. The No! she'd screamed in her dream wasn't for the wolf, she was worried about Edward.

So she goes to school on monday, determined to see him. She runs into Mike, who asks her out to dinner. She shuts him down and tells him it would hurt Jessica's feelings. Mike is totally blind sided by this, apparently he never realized Jessica likes him. He lets up and then sits next to Jessica at lunch! Good for him. Unfortunately for Bella, not only is Edward not at school, but the entire family is gone! This depresses her, enough so that she agrees to go help Jessica and her friends pick out dresses for the dance after school. Jessica ends up moving the dress shopping to the next day, because Mike asks her out to dinner! how nice.

blah blah nothing really happens. Bella ends up reading some books, but the one she chooses happens to have a main character named Edward. So she moves on to another book, and the main characters name is Edmund. So she gives up.

Edward doesn't come to school on Tuesday either. Then the girls head out to a nearby city called Port Angeles to go dress shopping.

The end.

Thoughts: Pretty boring chapter. Oh man Bella is in love with Edward how great. Some of the online vampire searching was cool, like the guy that massacres villages. Lol @ the fight scene ending as Bella wakes up right after that guy saying they end because she passes out.

Edward seems to be overall a good vampire. Don't know how this is all going to go down. I remember him saying "he's tired of being good" awhile ago.

It's funny how clueless about teenage girls the writer makes the dad out to be. When Bella tells him he's going dress shopping with the girls he gets all confused like, whaaat but you aren't going to the dance. He just doesn't get girl things! They need to discuss the dresses with eachother! I think the author is trying to make some kind of point here and it's pretty weak to me.

Chapter 8: Port Angeles

Yay the girls are driving to Port Angels to go dress shopping !! fun times girl talk who likes who

Apparently Tyler has been telling everyone that he's taking Bella to prom! It's why Lauren hates Bella so much (she didn't come on the trip). Jessica and their other friend Angela think this is funny and giggle.

Lots of giggling.

blah blah dress shopping

At one point Bella asks Angela if it's normal for the Cullens to be out of school. Yep, it sure is, they always go backpacking when the whether is good! Even the doctor!

Bella seperates from the two girls for a bit while they go down to the bay or something so Bella can go find a bookstore, they agree to meet at a restaurant in an hour. She finds a bookstore, but the it's weird and the window is full of crystals and dream catchers and books of spiritual healing, so she doesn't go in. A shop for the supernatural? We'll definitely be back here at some point. She's looking around and trying to avoid thinking about Edward. She notices a shiny silver Volvo across the street and gets annoyed at how much it reminds her of him. Yes, that is definitely some other shiny silver Volvo and Edward definitely isn't in Port Angeles.

So she wants around for awhile looking for a bookstore and kind of gets lost. She runs into four rough looking dudes who call out to her, but she runs off. Then later two of them show up a distance behind her, slowly following her. she tries to pretend to ignore them and hurries away from them. She thinks shes gaining distance from them and getting away, but when she turns onto a corner intending to turn into a crowded street so she'd be safe, she turns onto a deserted street with the other two guys. The guys behind her weren't following her, they were herding her! They approach her and say some silly things like "hey sugar whats up". Pretty much they are going to rape her and she doesn't have a chance. She has pepper spray but no way is she getting away from 4 of them.

Then suddenly a convenient shiny silver Volvo dashes out onto the street! What are the odds! It almost hits one of the dudes and makes them all jump back. Bella starts to try making a run for it, but then the car spins around and the passenger door flips open, and a familiar voice calls out "Get in!". Oh man it's Edward! What a surprise! Who would have thought he'd be in Port Angeles?!

Bella gets in and they drive off. She is so excited to see him and is totally breathless, then examines his face. Then she notices he looks murderously angry. He tells her to rattle on about something stupid to distract him and calm him down. She's a little confused but just starts talking about she's going to run over Tyler Crowley tommorrow so that they'll be even and he'll stop trying to hit on her to make up for almost killing her. Edward almost breaks a smile and admits he'd heard about the prom thing and thought it was hilarious. But he's still super pissed.

He admits he has a problem with his temper, but it wouldn't be very helpful for him to turn around and hunt down those punks. Atleast, that's what he keeps telling himself.

Bella mentions Jessica and Angela will be worried about her, as Edward in his distraction has actually left town. He turns around and heads straight for the restaurant they agreed to meet at, without Bella telling him where to go. How did he know?

It's been some time since they split up, so Jessica and Angela are leaving the restaurant and they look really worried. Bella gets out of the car to go meet them and is surprised to see Edward get out too. Apparently he's taking her to dinner! Aww yeah the perfect segue, from near rape to dinner.

Jessica and Angela are relieved to see Bella, then surprised to see Edward. He asks if he can join them for dinner. It's kind of funny, they are kind of stunned. Apparently he's never actually spoken to them before so they are completely unused to his charm. Bella thinks it's funny. Anyway, they already ate. Edward says that he'll just drive Bella home after. Bella gives them a wink and Angela drags Jessica off.

So now it's dinner time! The servers in the restaurant are all astonished by Edwards apparent beauty and fawn over him, making Bella jealous because they are all way hotter and cuter than her. But Edward only has eyes for her and completely ignores these prettier women! Yeah I can easily see the author placing herself in the story as Bella here. Anyway, Bella calls edward out for "dazzling" people. He's confused, apparently he doesn't notice he dazzles people.

Anway, Edward forces Bella to drink and eat. She doesn't want to, but he's certain she's in shock from the situation she went through. Once she starts drinking some coke she realizes how thirsty she is. Edward even offers her his coat since she left hers in Jessica's car! What a gentleman.

Anyway, time for discussion, about Edward! Bella mentions she feels safe with him, and this displeases him. She notices his eyes are really light, the lightest she's even seen them, a golden butterscotch.

She mentions that he's usually in a better mood when his eyes are so light.

what?. He definitely doesn't like where this is going.

He's always crabbier when his eyes are black! And she has a theory about it.

He hopes she's more creative this time and not stealing from comic books.

Bella starts with a few questions. One: Why is he in Port Angeles? He thinks this is funny but refuses to answer.

Two: Hypothetical situation about a person ((Edward) that can know what people are thinking with few exceptions - one exception,Edward cuts in (Bella). How does that work? What are the limitations? How would he find somebody in trouble at the exact right time!

Edward says he was wrong, she's much more observant than he'd given her credit for. Then he's very forthcoming about things and basically admits he can read minds. Hm. I thought before he was just very good at reading peoples expressions, and Bella was just very hard to read for some reason. But he actually reads minds and for some reason he cant really read hers. She's the only person ever.

He says she's a goddamn magnet for trouble, including him.

Turns out, he followed her to Port Angeles. He says he's never tried to keep a specific person alive before, but damn is she making it troublesome. Bella thinks she should think it's weird he's following her, but it actually makes her happy! Creepy.

She asks maybe her number was up with the van and that Edward has been interfering with fate. Death is going Final Destination on her ass. Edward actually says that wasn't the first time. Her number was up the first time he met her. Bella remembers his violent black glare the first time she met him and actually gets a little scared. He probably wanted to kill her so bad at that time.

Edward realizes she remembers, and wonders why she's still there.

Anyway, he's been following her all evening. He can't read her mind, so he read the mind of Jessica to keep tabs on her. He didn't notice at first when they split up. When he noticed he couldn't find her and looked around and read the minds of people on the street to see if anyone had seen her. He just drove around in circles, listening. Then he read the mind of those guys that were gonna rape her. He saw her image in their minds.. and what they were planning. It's why he's so angry. The reason he didn't leave her with Jessica and Angela was because he was worried he would go hunt those punks down and kill them if he was left alone. He actually says this.

Bella is a little dazed by this. Edward pays for dinner and they leave and get in the car. Once in, he says she has to tell him her theories now.

Thoughts: Well I thought this was going to be just pointless girl chatter, then suddenly RAPE.

Edward was seriously looked like he wanted to totally kill those guys. It was odd how he just admitted he can read minds so easily. And he's been following her, lol.

But it's ok because FIRST DATE.

Looks like this was mostly set up for next chapter where Bella will confront Edward about being a vampire.

Chapter 9: Theory

So now it's time for Bella to tell Edward her theory. First she makes him elaborate a little more on mind reading. How does it work exactly? Can he read anyones mind from anywhere? Can his family read minds too? Why can't he read her?

Nope, just him, he's the only one. He can't read anyone anywhere, they have to be close. The more familiar he is to someone's voice the farther he can be from them, but still not more than a couple miles. It's like being in a big hall with lots of people talking, if he wants he can single out one voice and listen to it. Usually he tunes it out though so that he doesn't accidentally answer somebodies thoughts instead of their words and look weird. He doesn't know why he can't read Bella, maybe her mind works differently and is on AM radio waves while he picks up FM waves.

Bella takes this as him calling her a freak, which makes her mad. She goes into a quick emo mode, about how she always knew she was a freak.

Edward thinks she's being dumb, he's the one that hears voices in his head and she thinks she's the freak? It's just a theory anyway.

Bella notices that Edward is going over 100mph and freaks out. Edward doesn't get the problem, he's not going to get a ticket or anything thanks to his built in radar detection and he doesn't get into accidents. Bella says that if they did crash into a tree he could probably just walk away. He laughs and agrees, but then points out that she wouldn't and reluctantly slows down to 80. This still is too fast for Bella, but he hates driving slow and won't go any lower.

Anyway, so he asks about the theory. She talks about how she met the Quileute's, and Jacob Black, and how they learned about vampires; specifically his family. She admits she forced Jacob to tell her by flirting. Edward thinks its funny and wishes he'd seen it. Poor Jacob, too. She accuses him of dazzling people?

Anyway, so then Bella did the internet research till she stopped, and realized it didn't matter.

This makes him angry. It should matter. Doesn't she care if he's a monster, that he's not human?

Nope!

She is curious though. She asks some more questions. How old is he? "Seventeen." How long has he been seventeen? "Awhile." How come he can come out during the daytime? "Myth." Burned by the sun? "Myth." Sleeping in cofffins? "Myth. I can't sleep. Never."

Edward says she hasn't asked the most important question; his diet. Doesn't she want to know if he drinks blood? Well, Jacob said something about that. That they don't hunt humans, they hunted animals, and weren't supposed to be dangerous.

He doesn't like that they said he's not dangerous. Bella corrects him by saying he's not supposed to be dangerous. But they still didn't want him around their land.

He muses that the Quileutes have a long memory. This shouldn't make her complacent, they are right to keep their distance; they are still dangerous.

Bella doesn't understand. Edward says they try, usually they are very good at what they do. Sometimes, they make mistakes. Him, for example, for allowing himself to be alone with her.

Calling being with her a mistake makes Bella start crying a little.

Bella asks why he hunts animals. He says he doesn't want to be a monster. But animals aren't enough. He can't be sure, but he'd compare it to be living on tofu and soy milk. They call themselves vegetarians as a little inside joke. It keeps them strong enough to resist, most of the time, but it doesn't completely satiate the hunger.

Bella comments that he's not hungry now though. He asks how she knows. Eyes, obviously! He chuckles and says she's very observant.

He says he was hunting with Emmett the whole weekend, but the whole time he was worried about Bella. He was afraid she'd get her ass killed while he's away. It really got on Emmetts nerves. No mention of bear fighting, though! WHERE IS ZANGEIF?

Anyway, Bella catches that Edward got back from his hunting on sunday. Why didn't his family come to class on monday or tuesday? Well, she asked if the sun hurt him, and it doesn't, but he can't go out in the sunlight where anyone can see. Why not? he'll show her sometime.

Oh god is this the "vampire sparkling" I've heard about? I guess it only happens on bright sunlight days? It doesn't usually stop him.

Didn't not being around Bella make him anxious? Well, he knew she was safe. She gets mad though, because she didn't know where HE was, and it made her anxious. This gets him a little agitated and starts talking about how this is wrong. It's one thing for him to be suffering, but if it's causing emotions like that for her, he should definitely really stay away. This makes Bella really sad and she refuses to stay away. And starts crying a little.

They talk a little bit about what Bella was thinking during RAPE attempt. He said she didn't look scared to him when he showed up. She looked like she was thinking about something. She says that she was too busy trying to remember self defense strategies. She was gonna smash one dudes nose up into his brain. That really is what she was thinking at the time. Though she doesn't mention it now, she also planned to dig out their eyeyballs with her fingers, and also the classic knee to the groin. He says she should have ran, but she just says she'd just fall down if she ran. Why didn't she scream? She was SO getting to that.

He says he is definitely fighting fate trying to keep her alive.

He promises to come to class tommorrow; he has a paper due. So he drops her off and drives off.

Jessica calls to make sure she's alright, and of course wants details. Bella promises them in Trig tommorow.

The chapter ends with this paragraph. It's actually printed on the back of the book, so I've been expecting it.

"About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him - and i didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him"

Actually, in the chapter she says "potent", but on the back cover it says "dominant", and I think that's a better word there! Failed editing imo.

Anyway, I kind of like that paragraph.

Thoughts: The big reveal that he's a vampire. He doesn't seem too surprised she figured it out. he's just worried that he'll hate her. I think he's hoping she'll try and stay away from him from now on but at the same time hoping that this won't repulse her from him. It's a tricky situation Edward is in. He is a monster that lives by feeding off the blood of humans, and that's something that he doesn't want. And now he's fallen in love with a human. Tough break!

I still like Edward. A lot, actually.

Bella, I'm not crazy about, but I don't totally hate her or anything. Call me a sucker for love stories but well, it's not like the situation doesn't make sense or anything. It's pretty straightforward. I'm not particularly fond of some of the gushing Bella does about Edward, but well, I'm not a girl, I don't really understand what she should be thinking, so it doesn't bother me that much.

Maybe throwing a WEREWOLF in for a love triangle might complicate things, I don't know.

Oh yeah, I forgot something peculiar Edward made Bella promise: to never go into the woods around Forks alone. He's not always the most dangerous thing out there.

What the hell does that mean?