Cheshire Girl

Ch. 1

Mom said the only reason we moved here was because this was what she could afford with her book sales. She wrote under the name Sophia Grimes and kept the air of mystery about her through no public appearances and mysterious letters to newspapers and other authors. She's collaborated with a few known authors and even had one of her books (Fast Times At Vampire High) optioned for a movie.

"It's easy writing for teenagers," she told me once. "All girls think the same. They want supernatural high school sweetheart stories. Thanks to Twilight, you can just rewrite it with different supernatural creatures that're male and attractive, and make tons of money...."

She always said more, but by this time I'd already walked away, feeling bad about having liked those stories.

I hated Twilight.

I also hate to admit it, but I was a former Twi-Hard too. At fifteen, I was a bookworm, but I was also still gullible. I believed that if it was published, it was because it was really good. I'd fallen for it like millions of other girls around the world. I was Team Edward and I let everyone know it (because he technically won). I reveled in the fact that my name was Bella, and girls were jealous... of me. I had brown eyes and hair. I was sort of pale, and definitely plain-looking. It was a great time to be like me... until two things happened.

First-the movie came out. The first time I watched it, I was all over it. I thought it was the best thing to ever happen. Then I started reading reviews and started to notice everything they pointed out, like Kristin's stuttering, Robert's permanent frown. I watched it more times and realized that it sucked. It ruined the story. Bella was not that inept at socializing. She was smart and funny and could even cook.

Second-the last book happened. By then I was smarter about what I read, but I still held some kind of loyalty to the series. I managed to get my Twi-Hard friends to open their eyes. When we read the last book, we saw that Stephenie Meyer had broken her own rule.

Let me just stop here and hope that you already know how babies are made.

Stephenie... oh, poor Stephenie. Maybe she cracked under the pressure of making her last book the best. It's hard to blame her... but I blame her.

She made her vampires like stone, forever the same, never changing. The female vamps can't have kids-Steph made it that way. So, by default, that should apply to the boys, right?

NO! Stephenie allowed the males to have kids, THEY can have children while poor female vamps like Rosalie have to make do with a mutant niece, and the werewolf gets his happy ending by default. It's a total double-standard, practically sexist, a slap in the face to feminism that allowed Fifty Shades of Gray to happen-

*deep breath*

I apologize. I probably lost half-if not all-of you. But you have to understand why I'd asked my mom to legally change my name to something else before we moved to Cheshire. The town was old and quaint, and everyone grew up together. I was not only the new girl, but I also had the most recognizable name in recent history. Once kids knew my name, I was going to hear the following forever:

"Hey, Bella-where's your vampire boyfriend?"

"Did you choose yet?"

"You're not cutting yourself to get attention, are you?"

"You can only have one, Bella."

"Vampires or werewolves?"