Broken Soul • Emmett Cullen

chapter one

Hello everyone! Before we start, there are a few items that I want to get out of the way. This is my passion project. Twilight is the guiltiest of pleasures for me. I'm using this platform to work on true character development. I write FF by adding another character and researching and hypothesizing how canon characters will adjust course. There are a few changes that I've made in the story as well, which you will see as we progress. I had to shift the timeline just slightly to fit my plot, and it follows the book not the movie.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and locations from the Twilight world, which is owned by Stephanie Meyer. I do not claim ownership of the characters and words that I am borrowing. All characters, with the exception of the protagonist, and created and owned by Stephanie Meyer.

Finally, the biggest shout out and continued thanks to my co-creator far_from7. Couldn't do this without you!

The air was crisp, almost bright despite the gloomy grey clouds that perched as vigilant sentinels across the crowded sky. Alaina hadn't been here long, but it seemed as though a never-ending stream of gloominess encompassed Forks, Washington, but if she was being honest, Alaina didn't mind. She'd always loved the chilly, cloudy days of Autumn in the Midwest, and even though it was February, it felt just like October at home.

Home. The thought sent a pang through Alaina's chest with intense longing. The weather may have reminded her of the bustling streets alive with the highs and lows of humanity, but the similarities ended there.

God, she missed Detroit. 

The tangy smell of diesel announced the arrival of the bus before Alaina was actually able to see it and she couldn't help but scrunch her nose in disgust. She didn't know why, but something about busses made her motion sick before even sitting down on the uncomfortable seats.

The dirty yellow bus slowed to a squeaking stop, the doors catching and jolting as they slid open. The driver looked down with a kind smile.

"Good morning!" The bus driver said, giving a short nod in greeting.

Alaina flashed him a nervous smile before heading inside. Luckily, there were only a few other students sprinkled around, so it was easy to find a spot near the back to sit by herself. Swinging her backpack off her shoulders and onto the empty space beside her, Alaina scooted close to the window and placed her forehead against the cold, frosted glass.

Sighing, she closed her eyes, willing her heart rate back to normal as it had immediately started to pick up pace as she felt the driver shift gears and jerkily resume its route. The acid in her stomach began to creep up, and Alaina took a shaky deep breath. She wasn't positive if all this was a result of motion sickness or her nerves getting the better of her. Seeing as she was on her way to a new school in a new town in the middle of the school year, she strongly suspected the latter. Either way, she was miserable.

The feeling of dread that had settled in the pit of her stomach since the moment she had woken up had not eased in the slightest. This was all wrong. It had started with waking up in the wrong bed, in the wrong room that was the wrong color. Even the smell was wrong. Now she was headed to the wrong school, surrounded by strangers in the wrong town.

Alaina spent the entirety of the bus ride taking deep breaths, and adjusting her forehead to a new cool spot on the window once she had warmed the glass too much for her liking. The occasional jerky stops and starts as the driver completed his rounds picking up the small handful of students did little to settle her stomach and Alaina did her best to ignore the increasingly noisy chatter that started up around her. She caught more than a few students giving her curious looks as they entered the bus, but Alaina ignored this as well, doing everything she could to avoid making eye contact and praying fervently that everyone would just leave her alone. Alaina didn't know if it was because she craved her solitude, or the other students - consisting primarily of freshmen - were too hesitant to approach someone who was so clearly an upper classman, but it worked, and they blissfully left her alone.