The Haunted Man MarcusxBella

Chapter One: The Invitation,

Starts in Twilight about the time Bella is in school before she meets the Cullen family.

Chapter one: The Invitation,

Bella stared at the page one of her book for a long time trying not to look obvious as she secretly gazed up at the Cullen group longingly. She noticed their alluring strangeness and the mysterious often drew her curious mind irresistibly.

The Cullens were all in their usual place around the table chatting in their own little click. They never really gave anyone a second look until Bella had arrived. The fact that the Cullens were different made her curious to know more about them. From time to time today however, the Cullen's attention drew to her somehow. They all glanced at her once then went back to their interesting, secret conversation.

The girl with the short hair, taking in her other-worldly appearance could make Bella believe in faeries or perhaps pixies, smiled her way then looked strange as she locked eyes with Bella. She stared into the distance as if in some sort of trance. The girl's boyfriend, Bella noticed, with a pained expression looked concerned. He turned the girl to face him as he held her by the shoulders. With a worrying manner he gazed in her eyes shifting to one then the other looking for answers. She whispered her replies to his hushed questions then he looked around from over her shoulders in her direction and saw that Bella was watching them.

Embarrassed, Bella dropped her gaze at the opened book and pretended to read it again. She wondered what happened to cause such a reaction in the strange girl. Bella observed her odd behavior with a lingering question in her mind. "What was that all about?"

A fit of laughter from her new friends distracted Bella from the scene and pulled her back to the group's conversation. She glanced around at each one in turn to see what all the commotion was. Bella could not help but to grin despite herself as Mike Newton had arrived and slid down the bench next to her spilling her drink on himself in his foolish haste. Bella stifled her giggle by covering her mouth then turned back to find the Cullen kids had suddenly left their table while she was distracted.

Bella was now disappointed, then frowned as she could not find them in the room. She turned around again to her friends to find Mike apologizing and she just shrugged in response. Bella explained to him that she was just as bad at being clumsiness and he was not to worry about it. As Mike wiped up the mess, Bella was shocked to see everyone suddenly freeze and she found it made her a little bit self-conscious as she felt all eyes on her. An abrupt tap came to her shoulder from behind. Bella whirled around in her seat and looked up at the well-dressed pixie girl giving her that sweet smile again.

"Hey, I think you dropped this," she said as she handed Bella the book she had been pretending to read.

Bella felt her face flush in shame for being caught and with hesitation, she took the book.

"Yeah thanks," Bella said looking down shyly at her hands. "I was..." Bella stopped short and looked up to talk to the girl but found that the girl just walked away with the rest of the Cullens without another word. She stared stupidly after them and then as Mike began to speak, Bella turned toward him.

"That was Alice Cullen. Strange kids, huh?"

Bella did not answer him and looked down at her book wishing she were quicker with her words. She really wanted to get to know them, but this moment did not go her way and she missed her chance.

As the bell rang, she stood up and stuffed her book into her bookbag then set off moodily for her next class. The day past and she did not see them for the rest of school then she became disappointed. She wished time would go by quicker for the last class to come to an end. As the bell rang out, signaling the end of the day, she grabbed her bag and hurried out to the parking lot. Bella stood for a time scanning it hopefully to find them but was let down again to find their cars already gone.