[ as we all know by now, 'coming soon' means within 24 hours of originally posting the cast page ]

☽︎

THIS PLACE IS TOO DAMN SMALL.

NOVA SWAN was trying not to appear giddy as she rushed out of her house as the familiar police cruiser pulled up. She plastered a smile on her face that was half real and half forced. She stood in fresh pajamas with wet hair, having finished getting her shower after her ballet rehearsal all the way in Port Angeles. The hour-long drive three times a week was taxing but worth it to get to the only studio worth anything near her.

Since she didn't have any shoes on — she'd done that by design so that she wouldn't be asked to carry any bags — Nova remained on the small front porch. She silently watched while rocking back and forth on her sore toes as Charlie and Bella, her cousin got out of the car. Bella glanced at her just once, and Nova had the time to smile before she went to the back of the car with Charlie to get her bags out of the trunk.

"I've got someone who's very excited to see you," Charlie told Bella as they started toward the house, nodding ahead to Nova.

"Welcome home, Bella," Nova said, her grin widening. "I'd hug you, but I think you'd start wishing you could cut my arms off, huh?"

"Yeah," Bella said with an appreciative laugh. "It's good to see you, Nova."

"Come on in," Nova said, holding the door open for them so that they could carry the bags in. She considered it a success that she wasn't lugging any of them upstairs. "And Bella, I cleared off some shelves in the bathroom — I kind of have a lot of stuff, but I found a way."

"Oh, right," she mumbled, only Nova catching how her face fell as they all went up the stairs. "One bathroom. Shared bedroom."

"Nope," she shot back, a real smile on her face. Growing up and during the summers that Bella visited Forks, she and Nova had always shared one fairly small room with bunkbeds. "Uncle Charlie finally let me move into the attic and turn it into a room. You've got your own space now."

The relief on Bella's face was so evident, an introvert like her craving private time and a sanctuary away from people. So, this was the best news to a person like her, which made Nova laugh. "Come on. We redecorated."

Charlie led them into Bella's room, which had minimal decorations because Nova figured she'd want to do that herself. But Charlie had to get her a few staples so that she could survive and do school work in there in case she didn't prefer to do it at the kitchen table like her cousin.

"It's a pretty good working lamp," Charlie said, a little anxious as Bella looked around the room. He didn't want her to hate it. "Sales lady picked out the bed stuff. You like - you like purple, right? Nova said you'd liked it last time you were here."

It'd been years since she was there, so there was no telling if Nova's memory did them any favors though.

"Purple's cool," Bella nodded. "Thanks."

Charlie let out a relieved breath. "Okay," he said before leaving the room unceremoniously. It made Nova snicker — he and Bella were so alike that it had always been a little painful to watch them interact.

"I'm guessing you want alone time to unpack?" Nova asked, tilting her head. Bella smiled, which looked more like a grimace, and nodded. "Got it. I've gotta finish drying my hair anyway. I'll catch you later."

☽︎

"Are they almost here?" Nova asked, once again outside and with her father.

"They left twenty minutes ago. It takes twenty minutes to get here from their house, Nova. You do that math," Charlie said, rolling his eyes.

Nova scoffed and shoved him a bit. He only swayed back and smiled at her before hearing tires coming down the road. And a second later, they spotted the old, beat-up red truck coming down the road. Jacob Black was driving, and his father was with him as well, Billy's wheelchair in the bed of the truck. As soon as they pulled into the driveway, Charlie reached through Jacob's open window and honked the horn to grab Bella's attention.

Nova turned and looked at her window, watching as she looked outside curiously. So, she cupped her hands around her mouth and called her down. "Come on down, Bella!"

As Bella listened and disappeared from the window, Nova faced Jacob, who was getting out while Charlie got Billy's wheelchair — they were going to stay for dinner before Nova gave them a lift back to the reservation in her own car. It was nothing special — a blue Honda CRV that was easily ten years old. But she'd cried when Charlie got it for her when she turned sixteen.

A moment later, Bella came outside, getting everyone's attention. "Bella, you remember Billy Black?"

"Yeah," she nodded while shaking his hand. "Hey, you're looking good."

He just smirked up at her, as happy as everyone else was that she was moving to Forks. "Well, I'm still dancin'. I'm glad you're finally here. Charlie here hasn't shut up about it since you told him you were coming."

Charlie's cheeks flushed with embarrassment — he'd been trying to seem cool around his daughter. "All right, keep exaggerating, I'll roll you into the mud."

"After I ram you in the ankles," Billy threatened, beginning to chase Charlie in his chair.

The two began playfully fighting, making all of the teenagers laugh. Then Jacob nervously walked over to Bella, his eyes skimming her face. And since Nova knew him as if well as if they were actual siblings, she could tell already that he thought Bella was incredibly cute, which she found incredibly cute.

"Hi, I'm Jacob," he said quietly in case she didn't recall him. And she did look a little clueless, admittedly. "We, um, we used to make mud pies together when we were little.

"Right, no, I remember," she nodded with a small smile. Then she looked over at their fathers, who were still fighting in the puddles. "Are they always like this?"

"You've got no idea," Nova groaned while leaning against the side of the truck.

"It's getting worse with old age," Jacob added with a little laugh.

But finally, the men managed to control themselves as they came back to the truck. Charlie smacked the side of it loudly while looking at Bella. "So, what do you think?"

"What?" she asked cluelessly, not understanding why Nova was grinning so brightly again — the girl smiled a lot, she was gathering.

"Your homecoming present," Charlie said as Nova gestured widely to the truck as if she was showing off a brand new car on a game show.

Bella's eyebrows shot up. "This?"

Her father nodded. "Just bought it off Billy, here."

"I totally rebuilt the engine," Jacob reassured her, knowing the truck sort of looked useless.

And Nova watched as the first real smile graced Bella's face — it made her hopeful that Bella wouldn't be completely miserable here. "Oh, come on. Oh, my gosh! This is perfect. You got to be joking," she said while rushing to get inside. Nova snorted when she smacked the door into Jacob's body. "Oh, sorry."

As Jacob rushed to the other side to instruct her on how the gearshift worked, Nova climbed in the bed and listened through the open back window, not wanting to bother with squeezing between them on the bench seat.

"Told you she'd love it. I'm down with the kids," Billy said proudly.

"Oh, yeah, dude," Charlie said sarcastically. "You're the bomb."

"So, you gotta double pump the clutch when you shift, but... besides that, you should be good," Jacob said, trying to explain it to Bella.

"Is that this one?"

"Yeah. Yeah, right there."

"All right," Bella said while starting the engine. Nova was glad she understood because she didn't know a thing about manual gear shifts in cars. Then Bella looked at Jacob. "So, wanna ride to school with us or something?"

Jacob frowned at that, hating to have to turn her down. "Oh, I go to school on the reservation."

Instantly, Bella's mood deflated. "Oh, right, right. That's too bad. It would've been nice to know one person other than Nov."

"Don't worry, Bell," Nova said softly. "I'll introduce you to all my friends. They're really excited to meet you. And if you don't like them, then you can make your own. I have faith in your social skills."

Bella cut her eyes to Nova, the dig at her personality not going over her head. She just rolled her eyes playfully and focused back on the truck.

"Wanna take it for a spin?" Jacob asked eagerly. "Nova can give you the tour."

"Yeah, it'll take, what? Five minutes?" Nova asked with a laugh. "This place is too damn small."

☽︎

Monday came sooner than Bella would've liked, her cousin was sure. And as if being the new girl wasn't bad enough, Bella learned that she and Nova wouldn't even be riding to school together — Nova had cheer practice before school started and then ballet rehearsal in Port Angeles after school. That'd been the whole reason Charlie got her a vehicle of her own.

But Nova promised to meet her in the front office where she'd get her schedule so that she could show her to all their classes. Except for Nova's AP History class, she and Bella would have nearly the exact same schedule.

So, after changing out of her athletic wear and into a warm sweater with an outdated print and a pair of baggy jeans — she always went for comfort over style — Nova rushed to the front office with her duffle bag in hand, trying to zip it up as she walked. Only to turn the corner and run right into a brick wall.

At least it felt that way as she let out a yelp and tripped backward. Before her ass could meet the hard ground, cold hands encircled her waist and kept her standing.

Nova's dark eyes met a broad chest in a white sweatshirt before traveling upward, seeing a thick neck of alabaster skin and a chiseled jawline before finally looking into the golden eyes of Emmett Cullen. Instantly, as she realized she'd run into the most handsome boy in school, her cheeks flushed. And his eyes tracked the flash of color with interest.

"I'm so sorry," she said quickly, shaking her head. "I was in a rush and not paying attention."

"It's no problem," Emmett said with an easy, breathtaking smile. Nova realized that this was the first time she was even hearing his voice, which was low and smooth and comforting. "I wasn't really watching either."

Nova nodded in understanding, a little too stunned to speak again as she just looked at him. Then, she realized his large hands were still on her waist — he must've just come from outside for his hands to be so cold that she could feel it through her sweater. Her blush intensified as she took a step back, his touch finally falling from her.

"Um, I've gotta go meet my sister," she mumbled shyly, moving to leave.

Emmett tilted his head a bit to the side. "I didn't know you had a sister."

"I mean, cousin, technically," she said, feeling embarrassed. "My uncle adopted me. So, we're, like, sister-cousins, kinda."

God, Nova wanted to smack herself for saying 'sister-cousins' like some kind of idiot.

But Emmett just smiled at her, thinking her definition of Bella sounded cute.

"Anyway," Nova huffed. "I should get going before she bails on school entirely."

"Of course," he said, nodding as he stepped to the side, letting her go. But she only made it a few steps away before he called for her. "Nova! You dropped your bag."

She spun on her heel, watching as he bent over and grabbed her duffle bag full of cheerleading practice clothes. As he came closer once more, it felt like her feet were nailed to the ground and her heartbeat picked up its pace.

All because Emmett Cullen knew her name.

"Thank you, Emmett," she managed to reply, having no idea that him hearing her say his name so gently had the same effect on the boy.

He passed off her bag to her, their fingertips brushing as he did so and making her suck in a sharp breath. Nova managed one more shaky smile before willing herself to turn away from the perfect boy and head down the hallway.

And once she was far enough away so that he wouldn't hear, a girlish squeal left the girl's mouth as she hopped up and down for a second before continuing toward the front office, a skip in her step.

Nova was probably the only girl in school that Emmett Cullen had ever bothered to interact with at school unless you counted Rosalie Hale and Alice Cullen. And for that, she knew she was impossibly lucky. And once she told Jessica, the captain of the volleyball team would be talking about it for weeks, blowing it up into something so much more than it was. And Nova would let her, twirling her hair dreamily as she did so.

Like most girls at school, Nova Swan was nothing if not a sucker for the pretty face of a Cullen even if she didn't make obsessing over them a part of her personality like some.

Like Jessica Stanley.

Finally, Nova reached the front office where Bella was waiting, her schedule and a map of the school already in hand. And the girl visibly relaxed when she saw her cousin.

"You're late," Bella mumbled, hiking her backpack further up her shoulder.

"Sorry," Nova said a bit breathlessly. "Um, ran into someone. But I'm here now. Gimme the schedule."

Bella happily forked over the schedule, and Nova was right — it was exactly like hers except for two classes. AP History and Pre-Calculus, which was mostly full of seniors if you didn't count Nova and Angela, the only eleventh graders taking them.

Since they had time before first period, Nova began the short tour. It didn't take long. Forks High School was impossibly small and almost all their classes were in the same two hallways. And after showing Bella the gymnasium and the lunch room, Nova challenged her to find their first classroom of the day, which was their government class.

As more and more people flooded the hallway, Bella scrunched her face up, looking from the printed-off map and at the door numbers around them as Nova kept silent next to her.

"We need to be in the other hallway, right?" Bella asked.

"I don't know," Nova shrugged coyly. "Do we?"

Bella let out an amused huff before continuing down the hallway, more sure of herself. Only to be interrupted by Eric Yorkie sliding between the cousins, putting an arm around Nova as he did.

"You're Isabella Swan, the new girl. Hi, I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place," Eric said, talking so quickly that Bella couldn't even interject and greet him. "Um, anything you need? Tour guide? Lunch date? Shoulder to cry on?"

Bella looked at Nova with wide eyes, who nodded encouragingly for her to socialize. "Uh, I'm really kind of the more 'suffer in silence' type."

"Good headline for your feature," he said brightly. "I'm on the paper, and you're news, baby — front page."

"No, I'm not," Bella said quickly, alarm flashing across her face. "You... please don't have any sort of..."

"He won't," Nova assured her.

"Whoa, chillax. No feature," Eric promised.

"Okay, thanks," she said in relief.

"And she prefers Bella, not Isabella," Nova chimed in, which Bella appreciated. So many people had called her Isabella so far. "Isabella is such an old woman name. What is she? A hundred years old and still in high school?"

☽︎

The second class of the day was Bella's least favorite — PE. And Nova quickly understood why she hated it. Bella had two left feet still, something she hadn't grown out of, evidently. Nova was kind of regretting picking her cousin for her team since she was one of the volleyball team captains while Jessica was the other.

"Go, Chloe!" Jessica shouted encouragingly as a girl on her team did a perfect serve, it going right for Bella. The team quickly learned to aim for her.

Nova tried to run for her cousin and intercept the ball but was too late. Bella smacked the ball right toward Mike's head, who was on the other side of the court and playing basketball with the boys. As someone chased down the ball that went flying, Bella wandered toward Mike with an apologetic look on her face.

"I'm sorry. I told them not to let me play," she said quickly.

There had been an annoyed look on Mike's face, but it disappeared as soon as he turned around and laid eyes on Bella. "Oh, good. No, no. It's, it's, don't..." As he trailed off, Nova wandered over as well, a smirk on her face. "You're Isabella, right?"

"Just Bella," she corrected for herself this time.

"Yeah, hey, I'm, um, I'm Mike Newton," he said, shaking her hand. "I'm a friend of Nova's."

"Uh, nice to meet you," Bella told him, glancing at Nova for confirmation that they were friends. Nova just smiled and nodded as Jessica ran over.

Jessica, who had a major crush on Mike, was like a bomb-sniffing dog when it came to other girls and the Newton boy. She was a little too territorial, but Nova would never fault her for it.

"She's got a great spike, huh?" Jessica asked with a laugh. Then she looked at Bella. "I'm Jessica by the way — Nova has told us lots about you. But hey, you're from Arizona right?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

Jessica tilted her head and studied her. "Aren't people from Arizona supposed to be, like, really tan?" She was expecting Bella to be a mirror image of Nova, but was wrong.

"Yeah, maybe... that's why they kicked me out," Bella said, her tone a bit too awkward for it to be considered an actual and intentional joke.

But Mike laughed nonetheless as he nodded. "You're good."

"That's so funny," Jessica said, forcing a laugh for Mike's sake.

Nova's narrowed eyes met Bella's uncomfortable gaze. "Was it funny though?"

Bella just scoffed and elbowed her cousin in the side before facing the net once more. "Let's just get this game from hell over with."

"Stick close to me," Nova requested. "That way we might not lose as horribly as possible."

☽︎

Eventually, Nova's favorite period arrived — lunch time. She filled her tray up with chicken nuggets and tater tots and a salad before leading Bella to their usual table along with Eric and Jessica. And of course, Eric was talking Bella's ear off.

"We'll have, like, this crazy pyramid fall from the sky—"

Suddenly, Mike appeared and pulled out Bella's chair for her, a charming smirk on his face. "It's my pleasure." Then he looked at Eric, surprised to see him already with Bella. "You know my friend?"

"Hey, Mikey, you met my home girl, Bella," Eric said with a tense smile. Nova grinned down at the table, hearing the jealousy in his tone.

And Mike matched it. "Oh, you - yo - your home girl?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"My girl!" Tyler Crowley declared, appearing out of nowhere as he kissed Bella's cheek and ran away. But not without yanking Mike's chair out from underneath him. "Sorry, I had to break your day, Mike!"

"Get his ass, Newton!" Nova shouted as Mike ran after Tyler, chasing him through the lunch room.

"Oh, my god," Jessica said with an uneasy smile as she sat down. "It's like the first grade all over again. You're the shiny new toy..."

Nova smiled sympathetically as her friend, knowing how selfconcious Jessica got when it came to other pretty girls and the attention of boys. She also nudged her foot comfortingly under the table, gaining Jessica's attention. Jessica just nodded sadly at her, letting her know she'd be okay and not hold this against Bella.

"Smile!" Then, unexpectedly, a camera flash bulb went off, and Nova turned her head, seeing that Angela had finally shown up and taken a candid picture of a now-stunned Bella.

"Okay..." Bella said uncomfortably.

"Sorry," Angela said as she sat down. "I needed a candid for the feature."

Before Bella could protest, Eric leaned in and glared at their friend. "Feature's dead, Angela — don't bring it up again!"

"It's okay, I just—"

"I got your back, baby," Eric said, patting Bella on the shoulder before walking off after Mike and Tyler.

Angela, who was clearly dejected about the lack of feature on the new student, forced a smile. "I guess we'll just run another editorial on... teen drinking..."

Nova smirked while dipping a nugget in ketchup. "I can give you a quote on how fun it is."

Jessica snorted at her best friend, unable to believe Nova even got away with it given that she lived under the Sheriff's roof.

"You know, you could always go for eating disorders... speedo padding on the swim team," Bella offered up, trying to help since she was the reason the paper had a lack of content.

Angela perked up instantly. "Actually, that's a good one," she said brightly.

Then, in sync, all three girls except for Bella looked at each other and said the same name. "Kirk!"

"Right?" Jessica gushed. "That's exactly what I thought."

"We're talking 'Olympic-size'," Angela said with a smirk.

"Oh, my god, speaking of Olympic-sized," Nova said, leaning closer. "You'll never guess who I ran into in the hallway this morning. Like, literally ran into. It was so embarrassing."

Jessica's eyes went wide, always down for some gossip. "Allison Garcia? I know she wants your spot as head cheerleader."

"Nope," she said, shaking her head. "Freaking Emmett."

As Jessica's mouth dropped in awe and Angela gasped, Bella just frowned. "Who's Emmett?"

"The love of your cousin's life," Angela said with a dreamy sigh. "Not that they've ever spoken."

"But we have now!" Nova squealed. "He knew my name. Didn't even have to introduce myself or anything. And he picked my bag up for me when I dropped it."

Angela didn't point out that she had two classes with Emmett, who was a senior and in their history and math classes. It was likely he'd heard the teacher call on her before.

"I knew he was a gentleman," Jessica said with a dreamy sigh. "You're married already."

Nova giggled and shook her head. "No, we're not. But it was nice. I'll be thinking about it for weeks. Bella, don't ever bring up a boy around Jess or she'll start planning your wedding... Bell?"

Nova glanced at Bella and saw she was totally spaced out and looking out the window of the cafeteria. Then she mumbled out a shy question. "Who are they?"

All three girls looked out the window and grinned when they saw the very boy they'd been talking about walking alongside the blonde girl that made everyone in the school a little too self-concious for their own good.

"The Cullens," Angela whispered.

Even Jessica had the decency to lower her voice as they started filing her in. "They're, um, Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's foster kids. They moved down here from Alaska, like, a few years ago."

"They kinda keep to themselves," Nova added, "understandably."

Of course, she understood it because she figured it was hard losing your family and being taken in by foster parents. They must've all had hard lives. But it was understandable to Jessica for a whole other reason.

"Yeah 'cause two of them, they're together, like together together," Jessica said, her eyes wide from the scandal.

Nova rolled her eyes and got Bella's attention once more. "The beautiful blonde girl, that's Rosalie. And the big, dark-haired guy is Emmett."

"The one you were talking about?" Bella asked her cousin, neither noticing how Emmett perked up at the confirmation that Nova had been talking about him.

"Yeah," she said with a shy smile. "It's not confirmed that he and Rosalie are dating. They could just be best friends."

"The other rumor is that she's gay, but no confirmation," Jessica added before moving on to the next pair that came in, watching as the blonde spun the smaller girl underneath his arm. "But the little dark-haired girl's Alice. She's really weird."

"Not nice, Jessica," Nova reminded her.

Jessica peered playfully at Nova. "You cut off Makenna Bennett's ponytail because she gave you the wrong look at cheer camp once."

"Um, I was thirteen," she said in her defense. Then Nova sighed. "But Alice is with Jasper, the blonde one who looks like he's in pain all the time."

"I'm not even sure that's legal," Jessica hissed.

"Jess, they're not actually related," Angela reminded her.

"Yeah, but they live together. It's weird," Jessica insisted.

"They are a little related," Nova added. "Alice, Emmett, and their brother are actual siblings. And Rosalie and Jasper too."

"Anyway, Dr. Cullen's like this... foster dad slash matchmaker," Jessica added.

Angela smirked and leaned in toward Nova, who matched her position. "Maybe he'll adopt Nova to keep Emmett company."

Nova laughed loudly and shoved her friend to the side. "Fuck off, Angela."

"Who's he?" Bella asked quickly, not paying any attention to the girls' banter.

They all turned and watched as he entered the cafeteria, walking smoothly toward his family's table. And Jessica blushed, studying his handsome features. "That's Edward Cullen. He's totally gorgeous, obviously. But apparently nobody here's good enough for him." Nova sighed, knowing Jessica had been brutally and publically turned down by him just after the Cullens moved to town. She still hadn't recovered from the humiliation. "Like I care, you know? So... yeah. Seriously right, don't waste your time."

"I wasn't planning on it," Bella muttered, her eyes still on Edward.

Nova glanced curiously between her cousin and the Cullens, noting that Edward was watching Bella too. But unlike the curious look Bella was sporting, Edward looked almost frustrated, which didn't sit right with Nova.

Edward Cullen didn't look at people, and he most certainly didn't glare.

Maybe Emmett was her favorite one to stare at, but Nova knew from then on out that she'd be keeping an eye on Edward Cullen. And if he made one wrong move toward her cousin, Nova would make his life a living hell.