DISCLAIMER: I am not Stephenie Meyer (characters) or VC Andrews (plot inspiration via her book Dawn).
Full Summary: Edward is no stranger to new towns and new schools. In his seventeen years, he's been dragged all across the country by his parents, Peter and Liz Masen. With no siblings, no real friends, and no place to truly call "home," Edward gets used to living life as a solitary teenager--until he moves to Washington. There he meets the Cullens and their friends—a beautiful, brilliant group of people who are both rejected and revered by their classmates. Edward reluctantly finds himself growing to like these people more and more...and finds himself having friends and, for the first time, feeling like he belongs. But just when everything settles down, his world is torn apart by a long-kept secret and an ongoing betrayal that will leave him questioning everything he's ever known.
Updated: 2/6/10: Thank you to ToTheEights at for the new summary. Thanks to Bridget for being my beta. Thanks to Lee723, Annetteskitty, Forever_Liz, Megsly07, and BQOTFU for the opinions and pre-reading throughout. Thank you to all of you who have decided to start my story. It started back in October 2008 and is still ongoing. I keep getting more and more alerts from but not many reviews from new readers. I don't know where you keep hearing about my story, but I love to hear from my readers!
The first 10-12 chapters are a little rusty--I fully admit it. I had just started writing again and after about chapter 12 I think I got better or a tad more secure in my writing or something. I also switched to a different beta after chapter 7 and she's an English teacher.
Legacy was nominated in the 2010 Winter Bellie Award's category for "Emmett You Want as Your Brother".
My name is Edward Anthony Masen. I'm entering my senior year of high school in a little nothing town of Forks, Washington. Never heard of it? Neither did I until my father accepted a job at Forks High School. He's the new head janitor. Excuse me, Head Custodian. I stopped being embarrassed by my father's jobs long ago. It was a job that gave us a roof over our heads and brought food home to the kitchen table.
That was, if we had a kitchen table.
Our living arrangements weren't always the best. We always settled in a tiny, cramped apartment or a tiny, cramped house. There were times that we only had one bedroom so I had to sleep in the living room, on the couch.
That was, if we had a couch. If I was really lucky, the couch was a pull out and had that middle bar that dug into my lanky frame and gave me a backache while I slept.
I'm being sarcastic. I do that.
The important thing was that my family was together, however small of a unit we might be. My family consisted of myself, my father Peter and my mother Elizabeth. I know they both wanted better for me. They were both uneducated, blue collar workers who took whatever jobs they could. Dad frequently worked in menial labor jobs such as a custodian or groundskeeping. Mom always seemed to take jobs at a grocery store or restaurant.
We really lucked out with our house in Forks. We settled into a very nice mostly furnished two bedroom house. Well, it was nice to us anyway. It was a little battered and worse for wear. To be honest with you, it was the worst looking house on the block. I had my own bedroom but I didn't have a bed. I had a mattress on the floor that was more comfortable than a pull out couch. The realtor told my parents that the last people were evicted and had left all their belongings. It was going to take another two days to get a cleaning crew to clean and remove all the previous tenants' belongings. My mother told the realtor that we had nothing and that we could use any furniture that was left behind. The realtor, who must have pitied us, sent over a cleaning crew and said we could keep anything we wanted. We threw out a dresser in my room because it was full of mice shit. I febreezed the hell out of my mattress, put two sets of sheets on it and slept on top of the covers. It was heaven to have some privacy.
My parents lucked out and had a squeaky old bed frame and a mice shit free dresser. The living room had a couch, coffee and end tables, lamps that flickered when you turned them on and an old, lime green shag rug.
I felt like I had tripped back to the 70s but missed out on the trip itself.
The kitchen was also old, but everything worked. The oven matched the living room rug while the refrigerator was a dull, ugly yellow. The knobs on the sink came off if you turned them too hard. The bathroom looked horrible but everything worked. The toilet had rust stains on the inside. If we had a pet I wouldn't let them drink out of the toilet. The shower was moldy before the cleaning crew, and my mother, attacked it with a lot of elbow grease.
I think it freaked my parents out a bit that I was in my last year of high school. I had started mentioning college and it worried them. I knew they had no money for my college education. I really didn't expect their help. I knew they had a hard time just paying the rent and electric bills. I had anticipated getting a job, somewhere, doing something because I had no real skills, and attending a community college. I hoped to get a scholarship to help along the way. My grades were great, I had a 3.9 GPA.
Who the hell was I kidding? I might be able to struggle through a year or two of community college. After that? I was destined to be a blue collar worker, just like my parents. I had dreams of being a doctor, a concert pianist or a composer.
They were stupid, fucking dreams. That's all they were ever going to be. I was stuck and I knew it. I didn't have to fucking like it though. I accepted it nevertheless.
"Edward, you're going to be late for the bus!"
I snapped out the fog I was in. Grabbing my sweatshirt and backpack, I left the confines of my bedroom. The bathroom was next to my room and my parents' room was on the opposite side of the short hallway. I turned right, took a few steps and found myself in the kitchen.
I threw my backpack on to the kitchen table and pulled the navy blue sweatshirt over my head. I was not dressing to impress anyone at my new school. It was already the end of September. Cliques had formed and friendships were made. I was just there to learn, maybe finish the school year and get the hell out of there.
Fuck, if I wanted to impress anyone at school I couldn't anyway. My clothes were well worn, sometimes too small for my tall frame and desperately needed to be replaced.
My mother shoved two pieces of toast wrapped in a paper towel at me. Mmm, breakfast.
"As soon as your father is paid I can get some better groceries." Mom looked at me apologetically. "I'm going to apply at the Thriftway today. Maybe they give employee discounts."
"Good luck, Ma." I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and headed to the front door.
"Thanks, Edward. Have a good day at school!"
I grabbed my gray wool coat and closed the front door behind me to find my father sitting in our station wagon. "Sure you don't want a ride? After all, we're going to the same place." He half smiled at me out the crooked window.
I quickly weighed my options. I could be stuck in a cramped bus with a bunch of hormonal, idiotic teenagers that I didn't know and didn't want to know. Or, I could ride in an old decrepit, rusty station wagon with dad and have everyone know my father worked at the school.
Oh, what the hell. I jumped in the passenger seat.
I unwrapped my toast and was surprised to find butter and strawberry jam on it. The slices were faced together, like a sandwich.
"Oh, jam." I stupidly muttered out loud. I took a bite and was surprised that it tasted quite good.
"Tasty, huh?" My dad continued to look straight toward at the road. "Thanks for not giving your mom a hard time. It's killing the both of us that we don't have a lot of groceries right now."
"S'kay." I told him before taking another bite. "Do you know if I qualified for free or discounted lunch?"
"I believe you qualified for free lunch." He shrugged his shoulders. "When you go to the office they should have the information for you. If you have any problems just come and find me. I have a few bucks on me just in case. I don't want you to go hungry."
The rest of the ride was spent mostly in silence. I took in the scenery while my father drove. We reached the school and he parked in the employee lot. Dad thought he should have dropped me off somewhere else, somewhere less embarrassing. I told him it didn't matter. And it didn't, the kids would know that he was my father one way or another. It always happened.
I walked around to the main entrance and through the maze of teenagers that had congregated on the sidewalk. The whoosh of the airbrakes on a bus in the bus loop startled me out of my day dreaming. I found the main office and was instructed to go to the guidance office. Once there, I received my class schedule. I had to ask about lunch and my counselor rechecked my file and dug out a lunch card for me. If I had any problems with it, I was to tell the cafeteria staff that I just received it today and I may not be in the system. I was to tell them my guidance counselors name but once I walked out of the office I no longer knew it.
Most of the morning passed by slowly and methodically. My classes bored me for the most part since I had already done some of the work. I wish I knew what the other kids thought once I walked into the classroom. I had to go directly to the teacher's desk and tell them I was the new kid. In English, I walked down the aisle to a desk in the back. One girl looked at me and I heard her whisper, "Fresh meat."
Okay, maybe I didn't want to know what was on the minds of the kids at Forks High.
I lucked out and managed to get into Black and White Photography 101. The school must not have the money for the equipment for color photography because it wasn't in the curriculum. It was fine with me. I was probably never going to need to develop my own film or come across a dark room ever again.
When I entered the Photography classroom I noticed it must also double as a shop class. The room had the familiar flat, hard wood topped tables that had deep cuts and grooves in them. There were different tools set in the back of the room like a jigsaw. I don't know. They all looked the same to me. They all took a blade, cut into wood and made noise, that's all I knew. Old, hand held tools were fashioned to the walls. The room was a DYI's wet dream.
I spoke with the teacher, Mr. Moorhead who instructed me to a table in the back row. He pointed to a tall, goofy but good looking kid with dark slightly curly hair. I was tall – six foot two – but he had a few inches on me, maybe a total of five. He had on a football jersey and was farting around with a camera. It was a very expensive looking 35 millimeter camera which I immediately knew didn't belong to the school.
"Hey, I'm supposed to sit back here with you." I told the jock as I pulled out the stool next to him.
He stopped fiddling around with the camera and looked at me. "That's cool. Names Emmett, you?"
Even without the camera, I could tell Emmett's family had some money. He was dressed in a pair of dark denim jeans that looked new and perhaps had a designer label attached to them. His black Nike sneakers looked brand new. His maroon EastPack backpack, which sat on the table next to him, looked brand new. You see the trend?
"Edward."
"Cool. Have a seat, bro." He motioned to the stool I had grabbed. "Moorhead is about to give us a lecture on apertures." Emmett put the camera back into its case. "I just want to start taking pictures. Hey, you can be my lookout while I sneak into the girls shower! Now, that'd be some great photography."
My eyebrow was crooked at him but I didn't say anything.
Emmett cleared his throat. "Damn, still on the lookout for a lookout."
"You know that after you turn twenty-one you're not legally suppose to be here, right?" I asked warily. In past schools I knew of students that were twenty-one. The year that they turned that age they had to leave at the end of the school year. Whether they technically graduated or not.
Emmett snorted. "Wait, you think I'm twenty-one or older? I wish the bouncer of Twilight thought I was twenty-one. I can't get in that club!"
"You're not twenty-one?" I asked wide eyed. Emmett didn't look like he belonged in high school.
"Dude, I'm eighteen. You?" He was one of those kids that always looked older than their age. I was slightly surprised that he didn't get into whatever club he was talking about.
"I'm seventeen."
"I've been told that I was held back in kindergarten." Emmett shrugged. "I don't remember."
I couldn't help but laugh. "What? You couldn't color inside the lines? Did you forget to go potty too many times? Did you not play well with others?"
At first, Emmett just stared at me. Oh, great, I pissed him off. My first day of school and I'm dead meat. Then something I didn't expect happened. Emmett's face suddenly erupted into a huge shit eating grin. His body started to shake with laughter. Other students turned in our direction to see what was going on.
"Alright class, it's time to start." Mr. Moorhead stated from the front of the room. "Simmer down back there Cullen."
Emmett extended his hand to me. "Emmett Cullen."
"Edward Masen." I took his hand and tried not to wince as he shook mine. The kid was strong.
"You're alright, kid." Moorhead shot a look in our direction. Emmett whispered. "I think this is going to be an interesting school year."
If he only knew.
xXxXxXxXxXx
I sat in the corner at a table by myself at lunch. It was much easier this way. I finished my miserable excuse for a piece of pizza and chugged down the last of my milk. I had planned on keeping my head down in a book and wait for the forty minutes to pass by. Fate is a cruel and miserable bitch and had other ideas for me.
Emmett walked into the lunch room with his arm around a cute brunette girl. Her chocolate brown hair went mid-way to her back in little ringlets. She was wearing a short pleated and plaid skirt with a white short sleeved button up shirt. She looked to be about five foot, five inches or so. You know, the not too tall, not too short type of deal.
If you put some pigtails in her ears, thigh highs and tie the ends of the button up shirt together and she'd be every man's private school wet dream. I could see her gyrating down the hallway with dancers, singing that god awful Britney Spears song. I wanted to wipe the image of the video – Britney's and Bella's version – out of my head, and fast.
They were quickly joined at a table by two blondes – one a girl, one a boy – and another short girl with short spiky black hair. They were the epitome of the high school in crowd. At least, they looked like it to me. I was surprised that Emmett had even bothered to speak with me in Photography.
I was sitting there, at my table in the corner, and I sensed that I was being stared at. I looked up and thought I caught Emmett's girlfriend – the brunette – moving her head from my direction. I was trying to forget about her staring at me when I sensed that someone was in front of me.
It was her.
She was leaning over the table across from me. Her white shirt, the top two buttons undone, billowed out some, allowing me a view of some incredible cleavage. I shook my head and made myself look at her face. She knew where I had been looking and held her arm in front of her shirt. Her eyes matched her chocolate brown hair. Her pink lip glossed lips held a smile and I think it was for me. Although, I couldn't figure out why.
"Hi, my name is Bella. Why don't you join me and my friends at our table?"
I glanced around her and they were all looking in our direction. The girl with the short, spiky hair waved. Emmett cupped a hand around his mouth and yelled out across the cafeteria, "Don't make me come and get you, Eddie! Get your ass over here!"
One of the monitors in the cafeteria went over to Emmett to give him a warning. I nervously ran my fingers through my copper colored hair and met Bella's eyes. "Um, that's okay, I'm fine here."
"Emmett will come over here and drag you back to our table." She smiled at me. I melted a little bit inside. "He wasn't kidding about that. Come on!"
Bella picked up my backpack and took two small steps backwards. "Come on!" She repeated and flicked her head back toward their table.
Grabbing my book, I left my seat and followed Bella across the cafeteria. I took my bag that she had slung over her shoulder and plopped down in the seat next to her. She pointed across the table, starting with the spiky haired girl and then the blondes. "That's Emmett's sister Alice – she's a junior. Those are the wonder twins, Jasper and Rosalie Hale. You know Emmett and I'm Bella Swan."
"Hi Edward!" They all chimed in together. I felt like I was in a bad episode of Cheers. And soon enough, everyone in the stinking little rinky dink town of Forks would know my name and everything about me.