Veronica Winchester was the talk of the school for a reason. She was gorgeous, second to the Cullens themselves, and she walked confidently as she knew it. She was a Winchester after all — even if only half — and good looks seemed to run in their veins.

Her phone rang as she stepped into the office. Veronica rolled her eyes, knowing exactly who it was and didn't find in necessary to answer right away. After silencing her ringer, she stepped up to the front desk and gave the secretary a charming smile. The nameplate on the secretary's desk read "Ms. Cope."

"Good morning," she greeted brightly, slightly overdoing it to make a good impression. "My name's Veronica Winchester and I'm a new student."

"Oh, hello dear! It's so lovely to have a new student. I must say we got your registration information very suddenly but..."

Veronica zoned out a little as the older woman continued to talk, not really caring about her and what she was saying. She eyed the small office, taking notice of all the brightly colored flyers and flowers in the room. Then her eyes traveled to the window and noticed that it had started raining in the few minutes since she had parked her car. She had done her research before moving to Forks and knew that it would be constantly raining in the small town. She didn't mind.

"So, here's your class schedule, locker number, and a map of the school. You'll also need to get all of your teachers to sign this and bring it back to me at the end of the day."

Veronica took the small stack of papers and offered Ms. Cope a small smile. "Thank you. I guess I'll see you after my classes."

"I hope you have a wonderful first day, Sweetie."

Just as Veronica stepped out of the office, her phone rang again and this time she answered it, leaning against a wall to talk.

"This is the fourth time you've called me today, Dean," she said, rolling her eyes but smiling fondly. "Either Sam was eaten by a Wendigo or you're just being clingy."

"He's just being clingy."

"Shut up, Sammy!"

Veronica chuckled as her two half-brothers argued in the background for a few moments. "How's the hunt going?"

"Good. We located where the Wendigo is hiding out and we're about to take him out. Just wanted to check on you and your first day," Dean said, a caring note in his voice which was only reserved for his siblings.

"It's fine. Barely started, actually."

"Well, if you change your mind about—"

Veronica sighed and cut Dean off. "We agreed on this. I get to finish my last semester of school in one place. No hunts, no demons, no world-ending events for five months at least. And you already made me miss the first week of school to finish that salt and burn."

"I know," Dean said, sighing as well. "And I'm glad you're getting out. It's just..."

She heard Sam chuckle in the background. "We just miss you, Ron."

"It's been three days," she said, laughing. "But I miss you too. And you can visit any time you want, but I've got to get to my first class. Love you guys."

"Love you too," Sam said. "Have a good day."

"And let us know if you see anything freaky!" Dean shouted before the line cut off.

Veronica put her phone in her skirt pocket before finally looking at the papers in her hand. The layout of the school was fairly simple, and all the buildings were close together. Her classes were standard though it looked like because of the school's small size, she may be taking some subjects with Juniors as well as other Seniors. The fact that she had gym first period did not please her, but she would get over it. The next step was to find her locker, which might've been a challenge if Eric Yorkie hadn't appeared out of the blue.

"Hi there. I'm Eric," he greeted. Veronica momentarily froze, surprised by how suddenly he had joined her side. He brought a hand up to his thick black hair and brushed it out of his eyes. "Veronica, right? I'm the eyes and ears of the school. I can also be anything you need: a tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on."

"I'm not really one for crying," Veronica said, giving him a tight smile. This boy was a lot to handle at eight in the morning. "But I could use help finding my locker, Eric."

She showed him the slip of paper that read Locker No. 73B.

"Oh, you've got one right near the cafeteria," he said, guiding her towards the right direction. "Mine's all the way by the locker rooms. It always smells like sweat."

"Good to know," she mumbled, wanting to get to her locker as soon as she could so that she could tell him she no longer needed him. He was a bit too friendly for her liking and hoped he would go away after they found her locker. Or maybe she just wasn't used to welcoming faces in her line of business and it caught her off guard. Either way, she wanted him to leave.

He didn't.

Even after the late bell rang, he still walked her to the gym despite the fact that his first class was AP History, which was apparently on the other side of the school. Veronica paused outside the gym entrance and turned to Eric, flashing him a bright fake smile.

"Thank you so, so much for helping me, Eric. But I've got it from here. I'm sorry I made you late to class."

"It's ok. Do you want me to introduce you to the Coach or—"

"I'm good," she cut in quickly. "See you later."

"I'll save you a seat at lunch."

"No, please don't," she whispered to herself as he ran off. She sighed heavily and pushed open the doors, ready to face her first class of the day. It wasn't like it would be hard — she had done this probably a hundred times at other schools. Though this time around, Veronica was determined to stick around long enough to be remembered. She walked in with her head held high, determined to make Forks High her bitch.

For once, as the Cullens entered Forks High, the hallways weren't filled with whispers about them. They each suspected that it had something to do with whoever drove the shiny red car that had been parked in Edward's parking spot that morning. That caused him to park his Volvo in the spot where Emmett usually put his red Jeep. The new car had thrown off the unspoken parking lot balance. The family of vampires had to admit they were curious as to who drove the Impala — Rose especially, considering the nice condition of the old car.

It didn't take long for Edward to inform them of the new girl as most of the thoughts he heard were about her.

"Her name's Veronica Winchester," he told his siblings as they stood around their lockers. " Her music was so loud that Mr. Daniels thought her speakers would blow. She apparently made quite an entrance this morning when she took my parking spot."

"And then you took mine," Emmett grumbled. Rosalie, who had been leaning into the side of her mate, Nicholas Cullen, lightly slapped Emmett's chest.

"It's a parking spot. You both are babies."

"It's weird that I didn't see anyone taking his spot," Alice murmured, tilting her head. She typically saw all decisions that affected their family, but a parking spot wasn't that big of a deal, so they all shrugged it off and headed to their classes.

Jasper and Nicholas went to English, Edward to Pre-Calculus, and Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett went to gym class together.

Once everyone had changed into their gym uniforms, Coach Clapp started up a game of dodgeball, which they would be playing for the next two weeks. The first match went rather quickly and was halfway over when Veronica came in.

"It's the new girl," one of the boys who had been hit out of the game early on whispered to his friend. "Just like I told you. Total babe."

Emmett threw the ball in his hand before glancing over at her quickly, and then he did a double-take.

Edward had said there was a new girl, but he didn't say she would be physically flawless. At least, Emmett thought she was.

Veronica Winchester certainly stuck out against the otherwise plain group of students at Forks. Her blonde hair was unfrizzed by the rain, a relentless nuisance that almost everyone in the school fell prey too. She wore a red sweater that was tucked neatly into a black skirt that flared out and looked a bit too short for weather as cold as Forks, Washington had, though it didn't look like it bothered her.

Emmett had never been more thankful for his enhanced eyesight as he made out her face even from across the court. Shiny lip gloss that smelled like strawberries on pouty lips and light pink eyeshadow framed her green eyes. Her features were soft and for a moment, Emmett couldn't help but think that she looked like an angel — he knew Edward would make fun of him to no end if he had heard the thought.

Emmett had been so caught up in staring at her that he didn't notice the freshman boy that was aiming his shot at him. A dodgeball slammed into the side of his face, making him finally look away.

"I got a hit on a Cullen!" the boy cheered, high fiving his friend.

"Lancaster!" Coach Capp shouted and then blew his whistle. "That's a headshot. You're out!"

The Lancaster boy didn't seem to torn-up. In fact, he was proud. No one had ever hit any of the Cullens in dodgeball before. It didn't matter that Emmett had been distracted as several students clapped Lancaster on the back.

Rosalie and Alice shared a look from across the court. The human girl had distracted Emmett enough that he had gotten hit by a ball flying at human speed.

"Did you know that was going to happen?" Rosalie asked so lowly that only a vampire could hear. She gently threw a ball, hitting Jessica Stanley in the side.

Alice didn't reply verbally but shook her head with a frown as she caught the ball that Mike Newton had tried to hit her with. Alice was now unnerved and wondered why she wasn't seeing any visions of this new girl.

All three vampires looked at the girl as she walked up to Coach Clapp to introduce herself.

They all wanted to know who she was, though for quite different reasons.

"You must be our new student," Coach Clapp greeted loudly before Veronica was even close to him. The dodgeball game had pretty much died out and everyone was watching her, though she wasn't bothered by the watching eyes.

"Yes. I'm Veronica Winchester. It's nice to meet you."

"Head on into the changing rooms and grab a uniform in your size. I'll sign your slip and then you can join in a game of dodgeball," Coach Clapp said, pointing to the direction of the girl's locker room.

As soon as Veronica disappeared into the locker room, everyone began whispering to each other, including the Cullens.

"You were staring, Em," Alice said, crossing her arms and smirking.

"At a human," Rosalie added, frowning. "You know better."

"But-but she's pretty," Emmett said, looking at the locker rooms with a longing look. "Like, so pretty."

Alice giggled at the puppy dog-like look on Emmett's face. "You sound like Jessica Stanley when she talks about Edward."

"I know you're posing as a stupid human teenager, but you don't have to sound like one too," Rose grumbled. "Yes, she's pretty, but that doesn't matter."

"I think I'm gonna talk to her."

"No."

"But Rose—"

"No," she said firmly while Alice stood to the side smirking.

A few moments later, Veronica came out of the locker room and several boys let out wolf-whistles, seeing her in the small gym shorts and t-shirt, her hair now pulled up in a green scrunchie that had previously been on her wrist. Emmett didn't even hesitate before he threw a dodgeball at Winston Miller's gut, effectively stopping the boy from checking Veronica out.

"What was that for?" Alice whispered, furrowing her brows. Emmett was never anything but sportsmanlike when it came to games in gym. And he very rarely used his enhanced abilities to show off. She glanced at Winston, who was doubled over and holding his stomach.

Emmett scratched his head and shrugged. "They're being disrespectful."

The three looked at Veronica, who was glaring at the same freshman boy that hit Emmett during the game. He was one of the boys that had whistled and was still checking her out, making not-so-quiet comments about her legs. Veronica bent down and picked up a dodge ball and then hurled it at his head, much like Emmett had just done.

A loud snack sounded through the gym, silencing all chatter and whistling. It looked and sounded like she had thrown the ball much harder than Emmett. Lancaster was on the ground holding his face and groaning but no one rushed to help him. Coach Clapp weakly blew on his whistle.

"Winchester, no headshots," he said, though he didn't sound like he meant it very much. He was more impressed by the force of Veronica's throw. "You ever played softball?"