1) At first, I thought Edward had just been lying to Bella for some reason. But then, since the quote on the back of twilight is such a spoiler and I knew before I even opened the book that Edward was a vampire, I guessed that he might be hunting, because of the thing Charlie said about bears.
2) Lauren is really jealous and unfair. Why can't she give Bella a chance? She doesn't even know her... And it's totally not Bella's fault if Tyler (and just about everyone else!) has a crush on her.
3) I've always liked Jacob (and, yeah, I still do). He always seemed like a really interesting and great character to me and was a nice change after all the "OMG, Edward is so perfect!!!!" s. (No intention of upsetting Edward and his huge fanclub - don't be insulted.

)
I did think he kind of had a crush on Bella, but hey, doesn't everyone?
4) I think there are two reasons: First of all, Bella is a real book worm and spends a lot of her time reading, and if you almost
live in imagined worlds, I think you have a better chance of believing "impossible" things in real life.
Also, Bella says herself that she always knew Edward was something out of the ordinary and so she probably readily took any explanation that seemed reasonable to her. When Jacob turns out to be a werewolf (I think we can say it now, or did anybody not read new moon yet?

) she has a much harder time accepting it at first because Jacob was always so normal for her.
Jacob probably doesn't read as much as Bella and is also a very ordinary, down to earth kind of person. Plus, he never really got to know any of the Cullens or maybe he would have realised something was "wrong" with them, too.
5) Werewolves? Nah...
