Silence.

Glorious silence.

I appreciated it while I had it.

Soon enough, everyone would be talking. Talking about her. Maybe they'd talk to me, maybe they'd ask, maybe they wouldn't. But either way, tomorrow would be a day of neck aches and turning heads as every idiot in Forks High School muttered my name. My name and her name.

Genevieve and Isabella Swan.

I call her Isabella because, let's face it; it's much prettier than Bella. She thinks I do it to irritate her, but really I just forget to change it when she's actually around... which is going to be a lot more often now.

Damn it.

My sister is coming to Forks.

"Gen?"

"Coming, Dad." I call. So much for silence.

"No need. Just headed out." He called back, probably from the base of the stairs. I was in no mood to move anyway: After a long practice, I had made it to the top of the stairs and halfway down the hallway before deciding to sit down and rest on the hardwood floor. I was now lying in the middle of the hall staring at the ceiling and wishing my dad would have been his normal self and left without a word.

"Bye." I yelled.

"Sure you don't wanna come?"

"I have plans, Dad." Did I? Maybe. I frowned. A nap was a plan, right?

"Alright." I heard the door creak behind him and sighed deeply as it swung squeakily shut.

Last day of silence, I thought as Dad's footsteps trailed off.

Last day of freedom.

Probably shouldn't waste it.

With renewed strength of purpose, I struggled to my feet and clomped down the stairs to the couch. With a muffled groan, I plopped down in my favorite spot and turned on Criminal Minds. Then, true to my plan, I fell asleep.

..

I woke up to the sound of the sports channel and found my dad sitting over in his big armchair. He turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

"Plans, huh?"

I grimaced and closed my eyes. "I was watching basketball for coach."

"Hmm." He replied.

"What."

"They play basketball on CBS?" He asked mildly.

"I had changed the channel for commercials." I lied grumpily.

"Your sister's upstairs." He said, changing the subject.

I grunted.

"She'd like to see you." He prodded.

I shrugged.

"Gen."

"Ok." I said, recognizing his tone as his 'last warning' tone. I rolled off the couch with an 'oof' and left the room, heading for the kitchen for a 'procrastinatory' drink of hot chocolate. This did not take as long as I liked and I was soon headed back up the stairs, trying not to rock my drink and licking cocoa off my fingers as I did.

"Dad, is there a schedule for the bathroom?"

"Not dad." I grumbled as I arrived at what should have been my bedroom. Instead I was up in the attic now. "And I shower at night: mornings, you just need to give me time to brush my teeth and stare at myself in horror."

Isabella looked up from her suitcase and smiled slightly. "Hi, Gen."

"Hey." I glanced around the room and sipped my cocoa. She had all my old cheesy furniture and the desktop computer I'd had to replace with birthday money to keep sane. Weird thing about my dad: he bought me my car, bought another for Isabella... but had no idea about technology. Even our tv was a mammoth, old school monster. "Need help?"

She shook her head and I pursed my lips as she went back to unpacking. I could tell she didn't want me: I also knew that if I went downstairs, I'd get sent right back up again. And if I went upstairs, I was going to fall asleep and my homework would... I frowned. Did I have homework?

"You alright?" Bella asked uneasily. She 'd turned to find me scowling at her computer.

"Yeah." I shrugged and drained the last of the cup of cocoa. What do you say to a twin you don't know? "Yeah."

"Ok."

And she was unpacking again. Books this time. Then some sweaters. A dress. I continued to lurk in the doorway until I noticed that Isabella was starting to look a little frazzled and then I gave up 'sister time' as a lost cause. I meandered over to the bathroom, clinked the cup down on the counter, noticed it was almost nine, and sighed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day, but the dark circles under my eyes told me there was not much more postponing it.

I slipped into the shower and finished up pretty quickly, but ended up standing in the hot water doing nothing for about twice as long as I'd been productive. The warmth felt good, and every twenty seconds or so I nudged the shower handle to make it a little bit hotter. Steam begin to fill the room and I sighed, feeling a little bit more relaxed, deciding that maybe having a sister again might be nice.

When I finally left the bathroom and found Bella waiting in the hallway, I was almost polite. As she smiled at my apology, I actually got a look at her face and there was something martyr-like about it: I started to wonder if maybe she didn't want this either... maybe... maybe my sister...

I fell asleep feeling sick with uncertainty, lulled by the rain pattering against my attic roof.

..

I woke late and ended up sprinting around the house while Isabella and Dad had breakfast. Bella's morning routine was a lot easier: no make-up, no jewelry, let her hair hang down, throw on a bulky sweater, eat some toast. I couldn't quite do that; as soon as I'd discovered make-up, I'd found I looked off without it: same with earrings. I'm sure my dad made quite a few amused looks at the ceiling at the sound of my feet pounding up and down the attic ladder/steps as I decided that two braids didn't look right with dangly earrings and ran upstairs to find another pair before running back down to check again. If it weren't for my desire to save up for a prom dress, I would have bought a mirror for my room: as it was, my recent move upstairs was becoming an issue for my ability to walk out the door not feeling like a hobo.

"Bye, Gen." My dad called.

"Bye." I called anxiously, running down the stairs with a dim hope of breakfast as I stuffed a book into an overfull backpack. "Isabella still here?"

"Bella." My sister called from the kitchen. My dad walked out and I headed to my sister.

"You can take off." I told her and I walked quickly to the fridge, my short lacey blue dress swishing against my jeans—you can't wear a dress by itself in Washington, but I do my best.

"K." She said, standing and moving to the window to look miserably out at the fog. With a sigh she turned back to watch me stuffing bread into the toaster.

"What?"

"I remember these being yellow." She said, gesturing to the dark blue cabinets.

I glanced up. "I don't like yellow. I like painting. Did 'em last summer."

"Oh." She said and she wandered out into the living room, staring at pictures with an uncomfortable frown and tight posture. I watched her for a second before my toast popped out and I began slathering it with butter and drowned it in cinnamon sugar.

"Seriously." I called out. "You can go. I have to take a different car anyway."

"Yeah?"

"I have practice and don't even pretend you want to stick around for that." I said. "You also have to grab your schedule: they didn't have it ready for me to grab before. "

She nodded mopily and went to grab her jacket and bag. I heard her struggling with her rain boots, the slam of the front door, and then the chug chug of her ancient truck. Uck. As much character it had and as much as I'd love to hang a picture of the monster on my wall, it was the least practical car she could have had next to a convertible. Not to mention it was a buy from the Blacks and that pest Jacob was sure to use it as an excuse to come up. There was also the fact that everyone was going to know it was her the second they heard that chug or saw that blob of rusty orangey red. My white Chevy cavalier was awful to look at, but had yet to let me down or be anything but inconspicuous.

I glanced at the clock and sighed. Speaking of the chevy, it was time I get out to her.

I pulled on my own rain boots and scampered out to the car, giving her a friendly kick: my relationship with my car was a bit like the one I had with Bella. I liked her well enough and I'd take care of her when worse came to worse, but she didn't have much to keep me interested. I paused, feeling rather satisfied with this thought, and my chevy got a pat on the roof in reward of my profundity.

I got to school about ten minutes before first bell and, sure enough, the first thing I saw was the truck sticking out above the tiny cars around him like so many puppies. Though, to be fair, a bit further on I saw the Cullen's stupid Volvo and that would have made anyone else forget about Bella's poor truck completely. I shoved them from my mind as I caught sight of Isabella's jacket, making its way through the rain as she slipped into the crowds of students.

"She made it here." I told my car, giving it another congratulatory pat. I sat for a moment longer, letting Bella get well and truly lost in the crowd so it wouldn't be weird that I didn't talk to her. People were going to know who she was either way: I wasn't about to be blamed for the attention she was about to suffer. "Alright, let's get this over with."

I climbed out of the car and held out a hand, letting the rain gather in my palm. I didn't much like drizzle, but maybe by the time school ended we'd have a good patter going. The sound of rain more than made up for the cold, in my opinion. I wiped my wet hand on my jeans and grabbed my bag out of the trunk and, catching sight of my friends, jogged a bit to get to the sidewalk.

After that, nothing much happened for a bit. I went to class. I didn't see my sister. Some of the girls from my team asked about her and whined a bit about attention stealers. I got sick of it pretty quickly and when I walked into the cafeteria to see Bella sitting with Lauren and her friends I decided it was as good an excuse as any to sit with them.

"Hey." Angela is the only one other than Bella to look over when I arrive, toting an extra chair behind me.

"How ya doing?" I ask.

"Fine."

"And you?" I looked to Bella.

"Everyone's calling me Isabella." She said dryly. Ooops. "But they're very nice."

"Yeah?" I look at Jessica doubtfully and then turn to Lauren. "Hey, Mallory, did you still want any help with prom committee?"

"If you would help with the music..." She started and then trailed off with a shrug, too cool for finishing something as lame as a sentence.

"Sure." I said. "But I'll probably be getting a lot of requests from the girls." I nod my head over at the rest of my team.

"That's fine." Lauren said.

"Cool."

The conversation moved on to the other girl's requests and then to Isabella. It got a bit boring, honestly, getting to hear my twin sister's life story, and I tuned out until I noticed Bella get distracted by something behind me. What...?

"Who are they?" Bella asked Jessica.

Oh.

Jessica glanced over and giggled but I could have told Bella without looking if my mouth hadn't been full of pizza.

"That's Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife." She whispered so quietly that I had to read her lips.

"Buncha show offs." I muttered.

Bella nodded distractedly. "They are... very nice looking." She said weakly.

I grunted.

Jess giggled. "Yes!" Holy cow, what a girl. "They're all together though —Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, I mean. And they live together."

"Edward's still up for grabs." I teased and grinned as Jessica blushed.

"Edward Cullen?" Bella asked. "Which ones are the Cullens? They don't look related..."

"Nope." I agreed. "All adopted."

"Dr. Cullen, their dad, is in his twenties or early thirties." Jessica clarified. "The Hales are brother and sister, twins—the blondes—and they're foster children."

"They look a little old for foster children." Bella commented.

"Well, they weren't adopted yesterday, Iz." I snorted. Bella glanced at me, torn between annoyance and appreciation at my sarcasm.

"Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they've been with Mrs. Cullen since they were eight. She's their aunt or something like that."

"That's really kind of nice — for them to take care of all those kids like that, when they're so young and everything."

"Bit shady , if you ask me." I grumbled, turning to look over at the table over my shoulder.

"Have they always lived in Forks?" I heard Isabella ask. I was still staring at the Cullens. What was it about them?

"No. They just moved down two years ago from somewhere in Alaska." Jessica informed her. I continued to stare. They were all pretty attractive: was I jealous? Ok, yes, but still...

"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?"

Ha.

I turned and smirked at Jess. "Edward." We said at the same time. I laughed and turned away as Jessica continued.

"He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed and I smiled. I'm not the only with Cullen issues... though her motive is a bit different.

I turned back to the table and chugged the last of my glass of ice water before wrinkling my nose at the aftertaste of greasy, cafeteria pizza. "I'm off." I said, standing but reconsidering before I grabbed my tray. "What's your schedule the rest of the day?"

"Here." Bella spilled her pencils all over the floor but managed to give me her schedule without injuring herself: quite graceful for her.

"Huh." I said. "One class together... Phy. Ed." I pursed my lips and wiggled the schedule as I thought, reading over one more time before bending over to find my sister crawling around under the table with the ever helpful Angela. "You know where Biology is?"

"I can show her." Angela said. "She has that next?"

"Yeah." Bella said, looking very flustered as she glanced up at me. I grinned.

"Having a good day, Isabella?" I asked.

"Bella." Was all she replied.

I laughed and walked out.

..

I had Pre-Calc next, which was entertaining enough, what with Tyler Crowley being my desk mate. He looked especially cute as he waved good-bye to me, still laughing about our argument over my team's last weekend's loss being his fault for not being there as a good luck charm or mine for not having a pair of lucky socks like he did. As I moved on to Gym, I was smiling like an idiot and was only a little annoyed when Bella showed up with Mike drooling over her like a demented, blonde puppy.

"Genevieve, hey!" He called.

"Hey." I said. Mike is cute enough and popular enough that I have to be nice to him. "Want me to show you where to find the locker room, Bella?" I asked, seeing she felt exactly the same way about him.

"Sure." Bella agreed, but it wasn't a foolproof plan: the boys' locker room was on the way and Mike continued to focus the conversation on Bella.

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

I looked over, raising an eyebrow but Bella spoke before I could.

"Was that the boy I sat next to in Biology?" Bella said innocently. I began to snicker and had to drop behind a bit to keep from giving her away.

"Yes," Mike said, glancing back at me so that I had to pretend to be having a coughing fit. "he looked like he was in pain or something.... Are you ok, Swan?"

"Peachy." I choked. He turned back to Bella, looking at her expectantly.

It took her a moment to remember. "Oh... I don't know. I... I never spoke to him." She shrugged helplessly, looking back at me. I just shrugged: we had reached the locker room and I knew I could ask her about it when we were alone.

"He's a weird guy." Mike said, obviously stalling. Bella had to stop in the doorway to keep from being rude and I of course was stuck behind them. Not that Mike even seemed to notice I was there. "If I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you."

Are you serious.

Bella smiled awkwardly and slipped into the locker room. I turned to look at Mike skeptically.

"What?" He asked, looking offended.

I frowned, not sure I wanted to openly admit that he wasn't good enough for the sister of Genny Swan. Another thought, just as bad, saved me. "Would yoooooou be willing to help me out with something?"

"What? Help you?" Mike looked completely confused. I don't know that we'd ever talked before.

"Bella sucks at moving." I told him.

"Well, that's not—"

"No, ask her: she's horrible at sports. " I hissed urgently. "And she is going to humiliate herself if we don't help her."

"Ok. So..." Mike didn't seem to know what to do about that.

"If you're on her team, don't let her get the ball!"

"Oh."

"And she will thank you."

"Oh." He looked suspicious.

"Just do it." I sighed and then I swooped off into an empty locker room. Unfortunately, I couldn't ask Isabella anything: I'd forgotten she didn't have a uniform. I found her in the gym sitting on the bleachers with her folded uniform beside her. Well, that's one class taken care of, I supposed.

I gave her a quizzical look and mouthed, "Ok?"

She shrugged.

I raised an eyebrow.

She gave me a thumbs up and an eye roll.

I laughed.

Gym went pretty well. Mike and I were on the same team and he was actual pretty decent at volleyball. We won every game, partly thanks to Jessica staring distractedly at us: though as this was because Mike kept asking me questions about Bella, it didn't give us too much of an advantage. Winning gave me enough endorphins that I didn't mind their obsession with her quite as much and when class was over I promised to meet her after school before I ran off to practice.

"You sure?" She asked after school, following me back to the main office. "Won't you be late?"

"Coach always goes out for a sandwich before practice." I told her. And I need to hear your story about Ed—" We walked into the office and I finished in a quieter voice as I realized.... "ward. Oh." He was already in the office.

He turned back to look at us in a panic. The receptionist called him back, her face pink.

"I'm sorry but it's just too far in the year. And all the other Biology's are full."

What.

I turned to look at Bella: she was staring at the floor. My eyes narrowed and I glared over at Edward, he stared right back. I put an arm around my sister and scowled at him; how dare he? As if everyone else wasn't bad enough just staring at her; what could she possibly have done to deserve his look of hatred?

"Never mind, then, I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help."

Still glaring right back at me, he walked quickly toward the door and fled past us.

"What a dick." I muttered to my sister. She nodded meekly and walked over to the desk to speak with the receptionist. I turned to glare out the glass of the door but Edward was gone. "Dick." I repeated.

"Language, Swan." Mr. Jesse commented dryly, appearing behind me with a stack of papers and his glasses askew.

"Oh. No." I said. "I was thinking about... " I waved a hand about distractedly toward where I'd last seen Cullen. "about my friend, Dick. Richard."

"Richard." Mr. Jesse repeated doubtfully.

"Richard Edwards." I said earnestly, glancing over as Isabella started walking back. Mr. Jesse shrugged and shook his head, not caring enough to yell at me any more.

"Hey, Gen." Bella said quietly as I opened the door for her.

"You alright? I'm gonna head back." I told her.

"I'm fine." She looked about to cry. "Really."

"You're a terrible liar." I told her lightly.

She smiled weakly. "I know."

"Ha." I said.

We stood awkwardly for a bit.

"Well, I'll see you." I said finally.

"Bye." She said.

"Yep."

I watched her walk away, feeling a bit of an idiot. Only person in the world I can't carry on a normal conversation with and she's my twin sister. Figures. Then again, that's just Bella. On a different wavelength, in a different world. I suppose I should just be happy she hasn't embarrassed me. I turned away and kicked at the ground. Why did everyone have to like her so much though? I'd been living here for ages and half of them never even looked at me, even at my games. As I walked back to the gym, as I practiced, as I laughed with my teammates, as I drove home I found myself focusing more on more on one particular question, even as I scolded my selfishness...

What was so interesting about Isabella Swan?