Twilight

Bella says goodbye to her dear, “hair-brained” mother, Renée, and flies from Phoenix to Washington State. There, she’ll live with her father, Charlie Swan, police chief of Forks, a small town nestled in the cloudy, rainy forests of the Olympic Peninsula. Her annual visits to Forks are painful memories, and Bella doesn’t want to do this but feels she must.

Her dad meets her at the airport; on the drive to Forks, he informs her that he’s found her a cheap vehicle so she can get to high school and around town without being driven around in a police car. The vehicle is a 40-year-old red Chevy pickup that Charlie bought from a friend. Bella saved up for a transport, but Charlie tells her the truck is hers “as a homecoming gift” (7).

The scenery is beautiful and green, with moss-covered trees but wet from relentless rain. At Charlie’s house, her old bedroom is the same as she remembers, except now there’s a computer on the desk.

In the bathroom, she looks in the mirror: pale skin, slender-but-soft body, definitely not an athlete, especially because she’s so clumsy, and definitely not a people person. She fears she’ll be out of place at the high school. Those students all grew up together; she’ll be an outsider.

Listening to the constant patter of rain, she sleeps uneasily. In the morning, she leaves early, driving her old truck to Forks High School, a set of low buildings just off the highway. At the office, she receives her class assignments and a map. Nervous, she heads for her first class, telling herself, “No one was going to bite me” (14).

The morning classes—English, Spanish, government, trigonometry—contain a lot of material she’s already studied. Students are surprisingly friendly and help her find her way around. Two of them, Eric and Mike, seem very interested in her.

At the end of Spanish class, a petite girl, Jessica, guides her to the cafeteria, and Bella sits with her and her friends. She glances about and notices a group of five sitting in a back corner. Two are tall, muscular boys who look old enough for college; a third boy is lanky and bronze-haired. Two girls are with them: One looks like a blond model, and the other is short and skinny with spiky, jet-black hair. All of them have pale skin, even whiter than Bella’s. None of them touch their trays of food. Each has dark, intense eyes; their faces are stunningly beautiful.

Bella asks Jessica who they are. Jessica says they’re Edward, Emmet, and Alice Cullen, plus Rosalie and Jasper Hale. They live with Dr. and Mrs. Cullen. Bella wonders at the names: They’re very old-fashioned. Jessica adds that the five students are adoptees, and the family moved to Forks from Alaska two years ago. The boy with red-brown hair seems curious about her. They leave, and Bella notices how gracefully they walk.

In biology class, chairs around the lab tables are filled except for one; it’s next to the pale boy with red-brown hair, Edward. As she passes him on the way to the teacher’s desk, he notices her and seems suddenly angry. The teacher, Mr. Banner, assigns her to the chair next to Edward; as she sits, he leans away. During class, he sits rigidly, one hand balled into a fist. When the bell rings, Edward is up and out of the classroom before anyone else.

A nice boy, Mike, walks her to the gym for her next class. He asks if she did something to Edward because he’s never seen him act so strangely.

Bella doesn’t have to suit up on her first day. She watches the others play volleyball, a game in which she’s managed to injure herself and others many times, and shudders about her future in gym class.

She returns her signed class slips to the office. There, Edward is talking rapidly to the receptionist, trying to get out of biology class. Edward turns, sees Bella, and stares at her with eyes that are “hate-filled.” He tells the receptionist to disregard his request, apologizes, and leaves quickly.

Bella sits in her truck, staring, hurt by Edward’s behavior. As she drives home, her eyes fill with tears.

The next day at lunch, Bella sits with Mike, Eric, and Jessica. Edward isn’t there, nor is he in biology class. Bella feels relieved but wonders if his absence is due to her. In gym class, she manages to hit a teammate in the head with a volleyball.

After school, Bella goes to the food store and buys supplies. She’s decided that if she’s going to eat more than her father’s bacon and eggs at every meal, she’ll have to do the cooking. At home, she finds several emails from her worried mother; she writes back to reassure her that all’s well.

Bella prepares steak, potatoes, and salad; she and her father eat in comfortable silence. Her dad finally asks about her day; she catches him up, then asks about the Cullens, commenting that they don’t seem to fit in. Charlie, in an unusually long burst of words, says Dr. Cullen is a great man who could practice surgery anywhere, and his family is polite and well-behaved, which is more than he can say for a lot of the town’s kids. It’s unfair, he believes, that people should gossip about them.

The rest of the week is uneventful. Edward remains absent, and Bella relaxes. Mike arranges an upcoming trip to the beach at La Push, and Bella agrees to attend. On Monday, students greet her, and she greets them back; things are going better than expected. After English class, it starts to snow; Bella has never seen snow falling before, and she doesn’t like it. Other students throw snowballs; she avoids it.

At lunch, Edward has returned. Stunned, Bella keeps her head down but glances over at the Cullen table: They’re laughing and teasing each other with leftover wetness from a snowball fight. They look less pale, too. As she watches, Edward turns toward her: This time, he’s merely curious. Bella blushes and looks down. Jessica notices and teases Bella that Edward is still staring at her.

Just before biology class begins, Edward arrives and sits next to her. He keeps his distance, but, suddenly polite and charming, he introduces himself. She’s enchanted by his beautiful voice but confused by the sudden change in his behavior; as they chit-chat, she stammers like an idiot.

The class project involves sorting slides of onion cells into the correct order of mitosis. Bella knows this information already; she places the first slide into the microscope, adjusts the lenses, and promptly says, “Prophase.” She starts to pull the slide, but Edward stops her. His hand is ice-cold, and she feels a strange shock go through her. He looks at the slide and concurs that it’s prophase. He examines the next slide, says, “Anaphase,” and she looks and agrees. They finish the task well before the other students.

Bella notices that Edward’s eyes, formerly black, now have a dark-golden cast. She asks if he’s wearing contacts; he says no and looks away, but his hands ball into fists.

The teacher checks their work. Edward tells him that Bella identified three of the five slides; she shrugs and says she’s already taken advanced-placement biology.

Edward deduces that Bella doesn’t like the weather; he asks why she moved to Forks. Bella explains that her mom married Phil, a traveling minor-league ballplayer, and tried to stay home with her but missed Phil, so Bella decided to move in with her father so her mom could be with her new husband.

Edward suggests she’s suffering more than she lets on; she asks why it matters to him. He murmurs, “That’s a very good question” (50). He adds that usually, he’s good at reading people, but she stumps him. Bella is surprised at how candid she is with him.

The next morning, snow covers the ground, and the wetness from earlier rain showers has frozen into ice. Bella, uncoordinated on a good day, dreads trying to walk on the slippery outdoor surfaces.

Still, today, she’s optimistic. Charlie is usually away at work, and she enjoys the solitude at home; meanwhile, Edward will be at school, and though she feels foolish to want it, she looks forward to seeing him.

Bella slips and skids to her truck and drives to school. On the way, she speculates about why boys at Forks are drawn to her when those in Phoenix weren’t. Maybe she’s a novelty, or they never knew her as an awkward kid, or she looks like a damsel in distress. It’s a new and uncomfortable experience.

As she parks at school and gets out, a dark-blue van skids out of control across the lot toward her. She sees Edward staring at her from across the lot, shocked, and suddenly he’s there, pushing her to the ground, out of the way. The van crashes into the rear of the truck and bends around toward her. Edward’s hands reach up and stop the van before it can hit them. As the van thumps down, Edward pulls her away before it can smash her legs.

Kids rush to the scene. Bella tries to get up, but Edward holds her there and asks if her head is all right. Bella realizes she struck it on the asphalt, and it aches. Ignoring it, she asks how he got there so quickly; he insists he was standing right next to her when it happened. She refuses to believe it; he begs her to go with his story, saying, “Trust me.” She insists he explain everything later; grudgingly, he agrees.

An ambulance arrives. Edward is ok, but he says Bella might have a concussion, and they put a neck brace on her and gurney her into the ambulance. Edward climbs aboard. Charlie arrives, panicked, but she assures him she’s fine. Lying there, she remembers the shoulder-shaped dent in the car next to hers where Edward braced himself to stop the van.

At the hospital, Bella gets rolled in while Edward walks. She’s placed in the emergency wing near Tyler Crowley, the boy who drove the van. He suffered scalp injuries; he’s contrite, apologetic, and worried about her. He asks how she got out of the way so quickly; she lies and says Edward was standing with her and pulled her to safety.

Edward appears at her bedside, accompanied by his father, Dr. Cullen, who, like Edward, is very pale and extremely handsome. Dr. Cullen says her x-rays look good. He checks her head: At one point, she winces, and he suggests she stay home today. Dr. Cullen tells her that most of the school is in the waiting room; she groans.

Bella quietly demands an explanation from Edward. He still doesn’t want to talk about it. She says she doesn’t like to lie unless she knows the reason. He says no one will believe her; she retorts that she has no intention of telling anyone else, but she won’t drop it until he explains. He says, “I hope you enjoy disappointment” (65).

She asks him why he bothered to save her. He admits he doesn’t know why; abruptly, he walks off. Fuming, she goes to the waiting room, where a small crowd of students waits to see her.

Her father escorts her to his car and drives her home. He told her mom about the accident; it takes Bella a half-hour on the phone to calm her down.

That night, she dreams of Edward.

In her dream, Edward glows with light but walks away from her into the darkness. She calls to him and runs after him, but he disappears. Almost every night after that, she sees him in the periphery of her dreams.

For the next month, she feels an uneasy tension. At first, Tyler tries to make amends, following her everywhere, until Mike and Eric begin to resent him and Bella worries that she’s acquired another suitor. Edward, meanwhile, ignores her, even in biology class. In turn, she ignores him but quietly keeps an eye on him. She notices that, day by day, his golden eyes get darker.

As the weeks pass, Mike becomes bolder, chatting Bella up in front of Edward. In biology class, Mike tells her that Jessica invited him to a girl’s-choice dance, but he wants Bella to invite him. She tells Mike she’s doing something in Seattle that weekend. She glances at Edward: He’s staring at her with curiosity. Their eyes lock; Bella feels a shock of emotion.

At the end of class, Edward suddenly speaks to her. He apologizes for his recent rudeness but says, “It’s better if we’re not friends” (74). Miffed, she gathers her books, stalks out, and promptly trips on the door sill and spills the books. Instantly, Edward is there, the books stacked in his hands; he hands them to her sternly. She thanks him curtly and walks away.

After school, both Eric and Tyler ask her to invite them to the dance; she turns them down. As she pulls out of the lot, she sees Edward laughing at her.

At home, Bella gets a call from Jessica, who informs her that Mike has accepted her invitation to the dance. Bella suggests she tell her friends Angela and Lauren to invite Eric and Tyler. As she prepares chicken enchiladas, she tries to analyze Edward’s earlier comments. She decides he was trying to let her down easy because he’s not interested in her.

The next morning at school, after she parks her truck, she drops her keys and bends down to retrieve them, but Edward is suddenly there, scoops them up, and hands them to her. His eyes again have a golden color. He informs her that he overheard about the Seattle trip and offers to give her a ride there. Stunned, she asks why, and he explains that he was planning a similar trip and worries that her old truck won’t be up to it. She says, “I thought you didn’t want to be my friend” (84), and he answers that, though it’s unwise, he’s tired of avoiding her.

Heart pounding, she accepts his offer. He smiles but cautions that she’s wiser to stay away from him but then says, “I’ll see you in class” (84).

At lunch, Edward’s sitting by himself. He gestures for her to join him. Confused, she walks over, hesitates, and then sits with him. She comments on his sudden change in attitude; he replies, “I decided as long as I was going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly” (87).

She doesn’t understand. He says he’s counting on that. Again, he warns her that he’s not good for her. She admits she’s been trying to figure him out; he says he’s also having trouble understanding her. They’re both tense, but they keep staring into each other’s eyes.

He begs her to tell him her theory of him; surprised at herself, she blurts out something about him being “bitten by a radioactive spider;” he chuckles and says that’s not even close, but then he asks, “What if I’m the bad guy?” (92) Bella suddenly realizes that Edward is somehow dangerous, but he’s not bad.

Edward says he’ll ditch biology class today. Her head filled with questions, Bella hurries to class. The teacher hands out blood-test cards and shows the students how to prick their fingers and dab blood onto the cards. Bella hates the sight of blood; immediately nauseated, she puts her head down.

Mr. Banner has Mike escort her to the nurse; on the way, she nearly faints. Edward intercepts them, lifts her effortlessly, and carries her the rest of the way. He informs the nurse about her reaction to the blood-typing exercise. Bella lies down and soon feels better. Privately, she admits to Edmund that she can smell blood and hates the rusty, salty odor. 

Edward convinces the receptionist to let Bella go home early. He drives her home; as the car glides rapidly through the rainy town, Edward puts “Clair de Lune” on the stereo. Bella says it’s a favorite of hers. At her house, they talk about their families: Bella describes Renée as her best friend; Edward says he’s lucky to have parents like Carlisle and Esme. As she gets out, Edward teases her about her clumsiness and worries that she’ll fall or get run over at the La Push student trip. She slams the door.

At lunch on Friday, Bella overhears kids gossiping about her and Edward. Mostly, though, talk focuses on the weekend trip to La Push.

Thinking about Edward’s camping plans during dinner, Bella asks her dad about the location Edward mentioned. Charlie says it’s more for hunting than camping.

Saturday morning is bright with rare sunshine. Bella meets the student group just outside of town; they drive through sunlit forests to the gray water and sheer cliffs of the rocky beach at La Push. Forested islands rise offshore; white driftwood collects along the shoreline. They find a fire circle next to some logs, where they sit. Eric helps collect kindling, and Mike lights it; the wood burns blue-green from sea salt.

Bella joins a group of kids who hike to some tide pools. On the way back, trying to keep up, Bella falls a few times. At the fire circle, several black-haired teens from the reservation join them. One boy, Jacob, seems interested in Bella. The teens eat lunch, then some wander down the beach or up to the local shop.

Jacob sits with Bella. He says he knows about her because his dad, Billy Black, sold his truck to Charlie for Bella to drive. She remembers Billy’s family from her childhood visits with her father. Lauren, who likes Edward and behaves coldly toward Bella, asks why the Cullens weren’t invited today; an older local boy, Sam, says flatly, “The Cullens don’t come here” (121).

Bella and Jacob walk along the beach. Bella asks him about the Cullens; he answers with a story. Legend has it that his people, the Quileutes, descend from wolves and can turn into werewolves to fight their enemies, the “cold ones.” One group of cold ones came to live there and didn’t hunt the Quileutes—they hunt animals instead—so Jacob’s great-grandfather wrote the treaty that keeps the cold ones’ secret as long as they stay off the reservation. Those cold ones live nearby; they’re vampires; their leader is Carlisle.

Bella is stunned but hides it from Jacob. The boy admits that he may have just broken the treaty; Bella assures him she’ll keep the secret. 

At home, Bella plays loud music through headphones; the heavy beats prevent her from thinking. She falls asleep and dreams that Mike and Jacob are trying to pull her away from the beach and toward the dark forest. Jacob turns into a large wolf that snarls as Edward approaches. The wolf attacks Edward.

Bella wakes abruptly; it’s early. She goes online and learns that vampire stories are worldwide but that the tales differ so much that few overlap. Most tales agree, though, that vampires only come out at night. There’s only one mention of good vampires.

Frustrated, she goes for a walk in the forest and ponders, “Could the Cullens be vampires?” (138) She concludes that Edward must be one, and that she yearns for him too much to care. She hikes back home and, happy with her decision, spends the day finishing her English paper on Macbeth.

Monday at school, Mike invites Bella to dinner, but she says that would hurt Jessica. Mike, dazed, ponders this news. At lunch, Bella feels disappointed that none of the Cullens are there. At home, she sits on the grass in the sun and tries to distract herself with her favorite Jane Austin novels, but they all seem to have heroes named Edward or Edmund. She lies back, enjoying the sun, and drifts off. She wakes with the feeling that someone’s watching her.

The next day at school is the same: no Edward. Though downcast, Bella looks forward to a clothes-shopping trip that evening in Port Angeles with Jessica and Angela. 

The girls arrive in Port Angeles by four o’clock. The town, “a beautiful little tourist trap” (152), contains a big department store where Jessica and Angela search for formal dresses to wear at the upcoming girls’-choice dance. Bella has never been to a dance; she admits she’s never even had a boyfriend. The girls are skeptical: After all, the Forks boys like her, and Tyler says he’s taking her to the prom. Though fuming at this news, Bella manages to offer advice on the girls’ clothing choices.

After shopping, Jessica and Angela agree to meet Bella in an hour; they head for the bay while Bella searches for a bookstore. She gets lost in a warehouse district, where four scruffy young men corner her and, sneering, close in, preparing to assault her. She readies herself for a fight, but Edward’s car appears out of nowhere and screeches to a halt in front of them. She climbs in, and they zoom quickly to the edge of town. Edward stops the car and tries to calm himself: He’s very angry about the four men accosting her.

Bella says she’s late for dinner with her girlfriends; Edward drives her to the restaurant. The girls are just emerging; they’ve already eaten. Edward sweet-talks them into letting him drive Bella home. They leave, and Edward and Bella enter the restaurant.

The hostess and waitress fawn over Edward, who chooses a quiet booth. Bella orders ravioli and a Coke; he orders a Coke only. Bella’s jacket is in Jessica’s car; she shivers from the iced drink, and Edward gives her his coat to wear. It smells wonderful. He’s surprised she’s not going into shock over the recent assault since “a normal person would be. You don’t even look shaken” (170). She says she feels safe with him. He frowns.

She notices his eyes are especially golden and comments that he’s always grumpier when his eyes are dark. He says she’s not so much clumsy as a magnet for trouble. He confesses that he followed her to Port Angeles to protect her: “Ordinary people seem to make it through the day without so many catastrophes” (174). Strangely, Bella feels happy that he’s been following her. 

Edward has trouble keeping track of her because, unlike with everyone else, he can’t read her mind. Instead, he tracked Jessica and, realizing Bella was no longer with her, searched nearby streets until he sensed her in the minds of the four men. He admits that spending time with her now keeps him from hunting and killing the men. 

They drive back to Forks. Edward admits that he can locate her partly through her scent. He’s the only one in his family who can read minds, and he must be within a few miles of a person to cut through the noise of other people’s thoughts.

Bella tells him about Jacob’s stories of the cold ones led by Carlisle Cullen. She adds that she looked up vampires on the internet and that she decided none of it mattered to her. Jacob said the local vampires hunt only animals for blood—hence, the treaty—but they’re still dangerous. Edward agrees; he says animal blood isn’t perfect, but it helps. Bella says men are cranky when hungry and that he must have fed recently because his eyes are golden. Edward laughs: “You are observant, aren’t you?” (188)

He admits that he worried about her while hunting with Emmet; he points out the scrapes healing on her palms from her stumble at La Push. She asks why he wasn’t at school this week; he says he can’t come out in direct sunlight in public, but he doesn’t explain. She admits she feels anxious when he’s not around. He says it’s wrong for her to suffer over someone so dangerous.

They arrive at her house. Bella makes him promise to be at school; in return, he asks her to make a promise: “Don’t go into the woods alone. […] I’m not always the most dangerous thing out there” (192).