Dawn’s Light - Hunted
Chapter One
(Bella’s POV)
Book One
Rated T


I made my way down the steps of the plane that took me from phoenix, one of the warmest places in America, where I lived with my mom and her second husband Phil, who is a minor league baseball player, to Seattle Washington, the first leg of my journey on my way to forks, Washington, a tiny place that is said to be under the constant threat of rain, hidden in fog and clouds.

As I make my way in and through the airport what my mom said to me as she held unto me for dear life at the airport there, ran through my mind, ‘you don’t have to go you know, I can stay home with you, I can go with Phil another time,’  it was a tempting offer and was tempting me now to turn around and get back on that plane, but I know I couldn’t, wouldn’t do that to her, she has sacrificed so much of her happiness already for me. I declined and convinced her that this is what I wanted to do; it would give me the chance to get to know my dad a lot better.

Though I have seen him once or twice a year since my mom left him when I was five, I don’t know him as well as I should, and The reason for her leaving was never made truly clear to me, the reason she gave of, couldn’t live in that small boring cold place a minute longer, always seemed flimsy to me, and I always felt she held something back. Maybe while I’m here I’ll get the true answers to that question.

Why did she have to leave so suddenly in the middle of the night all those years ago?

As I walk through the airport, scanning for my dad my thoughts goes back to Phil, who is a minor league baseball player, he’s always traveling and usually my mom stays home with me. I know my mom misses him when he is gone. Now he has a chance to play for a Florida team, he will be going there for tryouts and will be gone for a while, hence the reason I am here to stay with my dad, so she can go with him without worrying about me too much. She will still worry of course and bombard me with emails and phone calls if a day goes by without her hearing from me.

I stop in the middle of the airport, with people bustling back and forth by me; looking around for my dad, Charlie, who is the chief of police for forks, I spot him scanning the crowd for me. I groan as the thought hit me that we will be traveling in his police car. One of the first things I plan on doing is buying a used car, because there is no way I wanted to be driven to school in his official vehicle.

I made my way over to him. “Hi dad.” I said when I stood in front of him.

“Bella.” He replied, pulling me into a hug. “Wow, you have grown into a beautiful woman.” He told me when he pulled back to look me over.  “I am truly glad you decided to come stay with me.”

“I am too dad, I missed you.” I replied, realizing that though I wasn’t looking forward to being in forks, I was happy to be with my dad.

“Me too hun”.  He replied, pulling me into another hug “How is your mom?”  He asked, letting go of me “I bet she had a hard time letting you go.” He said with a small smile.

“She is fine.”  I replied. “She thought me coming was a good idea.”  I lied easily, not sure where that came from because I am a lousy liar.

He smiled and took my elbow. “Come on let’s get your bags and get out of here.”

Our drive to forks is quiet, not uncomfortable so, Charlie and I are alike in that sense, we’re not big talkers and that’s fine, I spent most of the trip looking at the scenery, which there is a lot of, woods and open spaces. And as predicted the weather is overcast and foggy.

Halfway through the trip, the silence was broken. “You looking forward to starting school tomorrow, making new friends?”  He asked.

“Yes, I am.”  I tried to sound enthusiastic about the prospect but in truth I hated it, not only am I starting in the middle of a school year, my last high school year, but I will be the new kid, and the center of attention, which I am not looking forward to, I’ve always hated being the center of attention.

“I have a surprise for you.”  He informs me. I look over at him, he glances at me and gave a small smile, he seemed almost unsure and nervous.

“You didn’t have to get me anything dad.”

“Well, you’re a senior now and I know you don’t want me taking to school or errands in my work car, so I got you a truck.”

I was surprised. “What?”  I stared at him. “That’s too much, you didn’t have to. I had saved up enough from all my part time jobs to get a little used car.”

“It’s not much, think of it as a welcome game gift.” He glances at me.  “It’s a truck that belonged to a friend of mine from work, Travis Johnson, His son, Brandon, build it up from scratch, and drove for about a month, but found something else he liked even better, now it’s just sitting in their garage taking up space, when he heard I was looking for a car for you, he offered it at a good price. He glanced sideways at me, I guess to gage my reaction.

I could argue about it, but what was the point, I needed a car, plus I had a feeling he wanted to make sure I was happy here and won’t want to leave “Thanks dad, you didn’t have to, but I appreciate it.” Smiling, showing him I meant it.

His face broke into a smile of relief. “I’m sure you’ll love it. It’s one of the most dependable trucks ever made.”

The drive became silent again after that. At least now I will have more money for my college fund, or whatever. When we reached his house, well mine now too, the same two story house he shared with my mom when they married, there was a black older model corvette parked in front of the house and an old dark blue pickup, probably made in the sixties parked in the drive way. I loved it on sight.

It wasn’t until I was out of the car and walking towards the truck did I notice the two people standing by it, they both had black hair, one older than the other, the older man had on deputy uniform and the younger wore a black button down shirt with blue jeans.

“These are the Johnson’s.”  My father introduced, breaking me out of my thoughts. Pointing to the one that seemed older. “This is Travis and his son Brandon.”

“Hello.”  Mr. Johnson greeted.  “Your father have spoken a lot about you, he was very happy you decided to come stay with him.”  He smiled and shook my hands. “It’s very nice to finally meet you.”

“Nice meeting you too.” I replied

“So how do you like the truck?”  His son Brandon asks.

My dad and Mr. Johnson talked as I looked over the truck with Brandon.

I walked closer to the truck and ran my hand over it. “It’s great. I love it.”  I told him. “I can’t believe you’re giving it up.”

“It was just taking up space.”   He said and shrugged.

“My dad told me you build it from scratch, almost.” I told him

“Yeah, it was great for a while, but I found something I liked better, the sale of this truck will help get it running.”  He shrugs again

“Do you go to Forks high?” I asked

“No.”  He replied, sounding almost disappointed. “I’m actually done with high school.” That surprised me because he looked as though he was in the tenth grade or something. I actually envied him; I still had a few more months to go before I’m done. “I’m off to college in a few more months.”  He informed me.

“Congratulations.”  I told him, because I really didn’t know what else to say.

He grinned. “Thanks.”


 “Brandon, let’s go, I’m sure Bella is tired from her long trip and want to settle in and rest.”  His father called out, stopping any more conversation. “It was nice meeting you; I hope you enjoy driving the truck as much as I did.”

“Nice meeting you too and I’m sure I will.”

“See you around Bella.”  His dad says before they both got in the corvette and left.

After they left my dad walks over to me carrying my luggage. “So you like it?”

“I love it, thanks dad.” I replied smiling.

“Good, let’s get in and get you settled.” He said with a smile of his own.

He let us in and we went straight up to my room, a room I hadn’t seen in two years, but nothing had changed in it, the same pale yellow walls and olive green bed set and curtain on the one window facing the street, the only difference was the computer. He walked in and placed my suitcase and bags on the bed, walking in behind him I noticed the rocking chair was still there, the one my mom use to rock me in when I was a baby.

“Welcome home Bella.” My dad told me, pulling me into a hug. “I hope you’ll be happy here.”

“I’m sure I will.” I said, stepping back.

He looked around once, nodded, and then left the room, closing the door behind him. When he was gone, I began unpacking, putting things around the room such as pictures of my mom, to really make the room feel like mine again. An hour later I was done and feeling a little hungry, I decided to go down and see if there was anything for me to eat, maybe I’ll fix something for both of us if my dad wanted.

A look through the cupboards and refrigerator shows there wasn’t much. I was about to go and find my dad when he came walking in the kitchen. “Sorry about that.” Realizing there wasn’t anything in the house to eat. “I ordered pizza, tomorrow I will do some shopping after work.”

“I can do that.”  I volunteered. “In fact I can do the cooking from now on; I can imagine how busy you must be.”

“You don’t have to hun. You’re not here to be my maid.”   He informs me, guiltily.

“I don’t mind, I want to. I have been doing most of the cooking.”  I grinned. “You know how mom is in the kitchen.”

He grinned back.  “Yeah, I remember.”  It was quiet for minute. “Well if you’re sure, I’ll leave some money. Thanks Bella.”

“It’s no problem.”

About an hour and a half later, the pizza had been delivered; we ate and cleaned up our mess. I sat with him while he watched some football game, though I paid no attention, I wasn’t into sports at all. Instead my mind was on school tomorrow. I felt myself falling asleep and decided it was time for me to turn in.

I stood. “I’m going to get cleaned up and get to bed.”  I said behind a yawn. “Goodnight dad.” And began making my way upstairs.

“Goodnight Bella and good luck in school tomorrow.”

It didn’t take me long to go through my nightly ritual and was practically asleep before my head hit the pillow, I felt worn out.

It seemed as though I had just gotten to sleep when I was being grabbed from sleep by the sound of the alarm, which happened just at a strange part of a dream I was having began. Sitting up I reached over and shut off the alarm, then thought back to my dream.

I had found myself in the woods, not knowing how, it was very dark and foggy, except for a light I could see way off in the distance. I heard sounds coming from a bush in front of me. With my hands stretched out in front of me, I began to make my way towards it. Just as I reached it and started to move it aside, I heard a very deep, almost growl whisper.

“It’s you….”

That’s when I was woken up by the alarm, before I could even voice the question I wanted to ask. It wasn’t a long a dream, or even amazing, but it still felt strange. I shrugged and shook it off, telling myself that dream was about the anxiety of starting a new school, going into the unknown. Deciding I better get ready for school. I didn’t want to be late my first day, I stretched, got up and spread my bed, then went around gathering everything I needed to get ready for school.

After quickly running through my morning ritual, wearing stone washed jeans, long sleeve v-neck t-shirt under a heavy hoody and white sneakers, I headed downstairs where I ate a bowl of cereal, about the only ateable thing in the house. Then grabbing my keys and the money for the grocery, where my dad left them on the dining table, I left.
I reached forks high school quicker than I thought I would, but then it wasn’t too hard to find, it’s located straight off the same freeway my dad took to bring us home yesterday.


The school wasn’t what I expected, it wasn’t as big as the one I attended in phoenix, but it wasn’t that small either. It was made up of a few buildings that seem to have letters written on them. I pulled into the parking lot, parked turned off the engine and sat for a minute, building up the courage to get out.
Well there is nothing to do, but do it. I grabbed my bag and got out, just as I did, a silver Volvo pulled into the space across from me. I was about to turn and go about my business, but stopped when I noticed the driver side door opened and a tall pale boy, dressed in a white button down shirt, and black jeans, his hair was dark reddish brown and that messy look that seems to be popular today. I couldn’t help thinking that there was something really odd about him. The sound of other doors slamming shut broke me out of my thought, that’s when I noticed the other people with him. Two boys and two girls. They were all just as pale as the first one. They were all really dressed up, as if they were on their way to a party instead of school.

“They’re something aren’t they? They’re the Cullens, adopted kids to Dr. Carlisle and his wife esme. They started coming here about a year ago, they stick to themselves mostly.” Someone said from behind me, I turned and saw a blond girl, a little shorter than me smiling. “Hello, I’m Jessica.” She introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Bella.”  I replied, smiling tentatively.

“Yeah, I know, you’re chief swan’s daughter, we’ve all been expecting you.” She informed me. I looked confused by this. “Your dad told anyone who would listen that you were coming to stay with him. He’s very happy about it.”

“Oh.”  I said simply. Just then the sound of laughter brought our attention back to the people at the Volvo.

“As I was saying, their the Cullens.”  She continued.” The short black hair girl is Alice, the guy who’s hand she’s holding is jasper, they’re an item, so is the tall blond girl and the one that looks like he works out a lot, then there is Edward, he’s gorgeous of course but don’t get your hopes up, it seems none of the girls here is good enough for him.” I glanced at her wondering how often she’s made a play for him just to be turned down.

Just as she said that he looked over at me then quickly looked away, just as the black haired girl walked over and whispered something to him, he looked almost angry then.
Putting them out of my mind, I rushed into the office, leaving Jessica standing there, where a grey haired lady, who introduced herself as Mrs. Dinah Gardener, stood behind the counter.  “May I help you?”  she asked, smiling brightly.

“I’m Isabella swan. I need my schedule.”

“Oh yes, I have your schedule and a map right here.”   She handed them to me. “Welcome to Forks High.”

“Thank you.”  I replied, taking the items from her.

“You’re welcome dear, have a good day.”  She said sincerely.  “If there is anything you need or need help with, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“You too and thank you.”  I told her as I left the office.

I stood outside the office and looked at my schedule, my first class was science. I opened the map to see where it was located when I felt someone walk up and stood beside me. It was a girl about my height with long black hair and wore glasses.

“Hi, I’m Angela, you’re Isabella Swan right?”  She greeted with a cheery smile. At my confused look. “Your dad has been very excited about you coming.”  She explains. I started to wonder if my dad had flyers made or something announcing his daughters’ arrival.

“Oh, well it’s Bella.”  I corrected.

“What?”   She asked confused

“I prefer to be called Bella.”

“Okay, well Bella, do you need help finding your first class?”  She offered.

“Sure.” I replied showing her my schedule.

“Hey, we have the same class this period.”  She says as we began walking towards it.  “The teacher’s name is Miss Wilson, she’s very nice ……”
As we walked she told me all about the class and a little about the school.  So began my first day at Forks High.

Everything went well; there was always someone to help me if I got lost. There were no embarrassing incidents, well except for when I first entered a class room. It seems as though the day just flew by and now I was on my way to lunch with the girl I met in the parking lot this morning, she is in my math class, the class before lunch. She has blond, with blue eyes and a little shorter than me. She talked a mile a minute and seems to know everything about almost everyone. She invited me to sit with her and a few friends at lunch.

We entered the cafeteria, got in line and brought our lunches; they didn’t have a big selection, but what they had seem really good. I settled on cheese pizza and cola. When we reached the table there was already five people sitting there, except for Angela, the others introduced themselves.

There was Mike, whose family owned the hardware store in town, Ben, Eric and Lauren.
After question of, how I liked the wheatear here compared to phoenix and other curious questions, there was mainly small talk, which I am not very good at so I looked around curiously as I ate, that’s when I saw them again, the ones from this morning. They walked in as if they were on a run away, the short one Alice, used her boyfriends hands to twirl herself around as if on a dance floor. They were all very good looking, as I thought when I first saw them in the parking lot, but they had shadows under their eyes as if they hadn’t slept in months. I couldn’t believe there were people who were paler than I was when I haven’t been in the sun for a while. I knew I should look away before they caught me staring, but …

“What are you staring at Bella?”  Jessica broke me out of my thoughts.  “Oh,” she exclaimed when she saw where I was looking.  “Yeah he is gorgeous, but like I said earlier, don’t waste your time none of the girls here seems good enough for him.”

He looked straight at me when she said that, almost as if he heard her, he had a slight grin on his face, and then seem to think better of it and looked away. My face became red in embarrassment been caught staring and was relieved when the bell rang for our next class.

“What class do you have next?”  Mike asked as we got up to leave.

“Biology.” I replied.

“Cool, me too, I’ll walk you.”  He said excitedly

We said bye to everyone else then left. When we reached, Mike said he’d see me later and went to his seat; the only empty seat was up front by the teacher. ‘Just great,’ I thought as I walked up and handed my schedule to her.

“Welcome Isabella,” I didn’t bother to correct her. “Just find any available seat,” she continued. “I’ll get this back to you after class.

I went and sat down; I had just pulled my textbook from my bag when I heard the chair beside me scrape against the floor and heard someone sit down. I cautiously looked sideways without moving my head, and then with surprise looked fully when I realized it was one of the Cullens. 

“Hello, I’m Edward Cullen.”   He introduced himself.”  And you must be Isabella swan.”

“Bella.” I corrected him.

“Bella?”  He inquired with a grin.

“I prefer to be called Bella.”

“Okay, well, welcome to forks high Bella.”

“Thanks.”  I replied and took the chance to really look at him and on closer inspection his looked perfect, almost too perfect, except for the shadow under his eyes, it had a marble quality to it.

The teacher called attention to the black board then, but all Through class, he kept glancing at me, I started feeling very uncomfortable and was relieved when the bell rung.

“It was nice meeting you Bella, I’m sure I’ll see you around.” Edward said, then left.

When he was gone mike came and offered to walk with me to the next class, PE, it seems he was also in that class with me. I retrieved my schedule from the teacher and we left.

Whoopee, I thought as we made our way to the gym, have I mentioned how much I love PE and how coordinated I am? I didn’t? Well, I’m not, not really, if there is a team sport and you want to win, your best bet is to put me on the other team.  Walking to gym, my main thoughts were, I hope I don’t hurt anyone and hoping the nurses’ office is near the gymnasium.

Yep, PE. Was as bad as I feared. We got a volley ball game going and mike chose me for his team, bad idea, first my elbow said hello to his nose, then his shoulders. I was so relieved when the bell rang for end of class, which also ends my first day of school, I practically ran out of there. I quickly dressed in my regular clothes then made my way to the office to turn in my schedule, that done I escaped to my truck. As I got in and started the engine, I noticed the Cullen kids getting into their car. I didn’t make the mistake of staring this time. With a shake of my head, I pulled out and went to do my shopping.

After doing two weeks worth of shopping, I went home and after putting everything away, I began dinner, which will consist of steak, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus with a peppered white sauce.  I dreaded having to go back to school tomorrow but for now I got lost in preparing dinner for me and my dad. I put the steaks to marinate then put some finger link potatoes to boil in salted water, I took this time to go freshen up and check my email. There was one from my mom asking about my first day of school. I replied then went back down to finish dinner.

Dad came home just as I was finished setting everything on the table.  “Hey Bella, something smells good.”  He said walking into the kitchen.

It’s steak and masked potatoes with asparagus.”  I told him

“Great.”    I’ll go wash up.

As we ate he asked about my first day at school and if I made any friends. I gave the general answers, and was tempted to ask him about the Cullens but didn’t.

“That was really good.”  He told me as he got up and put his plate in the sink.  “Thanks Bella.”   He kissed the top of my head before he left, probably to catch a game on T.V.

You’re welcome dad.”  Then I got up and quickly cleaned up the kitchen. I felt worn out from my first day of school and decided to turn in early, so after saying good night to my dad, I went upstairs and did the little homework I had for English lit. When done I went through my nightly ritual and went to bed, I fell asleep happy that I made it through my first day of school without incident and wondered what tomorrow would bring.