BPOV

I woke up screaming. I knew the time without having to look at the clock. It would be exactly 2:09, the same as it was every night. Pete came in, with Ali following. They both sat on the bed and hugged me. My mother had warned them about my nightmares, it's why they didn't look surprised.

My aunt and uncle were really nice. My aunt was slender, tall and quite pretty. My uncle was tall and muscular, with a rugged face that lit up when he smiled. They lived in a high class neighbourhood, they each had a car, and had bought me my own car, since I planned on living with them for the next few years. They had a pool in the backyard, and a house that was so large I frequently got lost. They had no children of their own, but loved me like their own. I had been here three days. This was my third night waking them up.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I murmured through the tears.

"Don't worry about it." Ali said kissing my hair. "We can always try to understand, no matter what."

"You won't be saying that after a few months of being woken up at two every morning." I informed them.

"Hey, are you like an alarm clock that way? Can I reset your timer? I want around six every morning..." Pete started, making me almost smile. I would fall asleep again within the hour, and be alright for the rest of the night. They went back to bed and I did exactly the same thing. In the morning they looked tired.

"I'm moving my room so I can sleep in the basement." I told them. "That way I won't wake you." Pete and Ali began to protest but I stopped them. "Plus I can go swimming every night and not trail water all the way through the house back to my room."

The pool was accessible directly through the basement. It worked out perfectly for me and it let them sleep. I got up and hugged them hard.

"Please?" I asked. They both felt uncomfortable moving me, but they agreed. I looked at the clock behind Pete.

"Crap. I'm going to be late."

I shovelled my cereal down my throat and ran to have a shower. While in the shower I brushed my teeth, using the warm water to rinse my mouth out, and washed my hair and body of the sweat I had accumulated from the nightmare. I got out and got dressed very quickly. A simple black shirt with black pedal pushers, black sneakers and no makeup. I wasn't a Goth. I just liked black. I used to wear bright colours, but they attracted too much attention. Not anymore. Or ever again. I calmly did my hair into a quick French braid and grabbed my bag.

I drove to the school way over the speed limit. I wasn't late anymore. In fact I had ten minutes to spare. I grabbed my iPod and put one earphone in. Beethoven's third symphony rang through the earphone, calming me down. I sat in the car, waiting for the bell to ring. I knew where all of my classes were. I had been shown a map of the school. With a photographic memory it was very easy to learn things like locations on a map. I decided to get there relatively early, so I got out of the car, locking the doors and walked to where the class was. I found it easily. There were six other students in the classroom already. Crap. People who'd want to talk to me. I got the huge stack of books from the teacher. It was English, my favourite subject, so I didn't really mind.

"Isabella?"

"Bella, please." I told him.

"Bella, then. Would you please make sure that you bring the textbook to class every day? The others are independent reading novels, so they are not necessary."

"Okay. Thanks Mr. Mason." I sat down in the seat he pointed to and sorted through the books, aware of the other students looking at me. Bronte, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen – I'd read them all. I owned them all. I dumped them into my bag and slumped forward onto my desk. The students stopped talking and I knew what they were about to do. Three, I counted in my head, two, one..."

"Hello. Are you a transfer student here?" one of them asked. I sat back up looking at the girl. She had brown curly hair, a petite figure and wore very revealing clothes.

"Yeah. I just moved here from Phoenix." I answered. I placed my iPod on the table and searched through the random selection of songs. I found one of Chopin's Nocturnes and played that.

"My name is Jessica." The girl came up and offered me her hand. I shook it gently.

"Bella."

"These are my friends, Lauren," A blonde, with a sour expression under her fake smile. She was pretty, but she could look better if she actually smiled. "Angela," A brunette, with very dark eyes. She had a genuine smile on and was dressed much more conservatively than the other two. "Tyler." A boy with very good looks, but wandering eyes, looked at me. Every inch of me. I pulled the collar of my shirt up, towards my neck, to stop his eyes from straying. "Mike," he was blonde, but much nicer. His eyes were on my iPod reading the song title. He looked up at me and smiled, a nice smile. "And Ben." He was short, skinny, but athletic and he was desperately trying to get a spoon to stick on his nose. I stood and went over to him. I took the spoon, breathed on it, letting moisture stick to it, then placed it on his nose. Where it stayed.

"Yes!" he said excitedly. I almost smiled, letting the corners of my mouth pull up a little. I sat back down. The others rolled their eyes as he showed the other students coming in. The crowd broke away from my desk as soon as the bell rung. I put my iPod on pause and listened to the teacher. He was talking about my favourite scene from Romeo and Juliet.

"Bella?" he asked suddenly. I looked up at him.

"Sir?"

"In your school back in Phoenix, did you have to memorise any of the scenes?"

"Sir, we each got assigned a character and had to memorise their entire part, throughout the play."

"Really?" he asked. I could feel angry glares of people shaking their heads. They didn't want to do that.

"But it was an English/Drama class. I heard that the English classes here are superior in the ways that they actually help to digest the plays and their unobvious meanings." I blurted out. The teacher looked flattered. I could play people easily when I chose.

"What part did you memorise?" he asked curiously. I ducked my head.

"Romeo." I muttered. He didn't hear. "Romeo." I said louder. The teacher raised his eyebrows.

"His entire part?"

"Yes."

"Act II, any lines." He quizzed.

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she:

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.

It is my lady, O, it is my love!

O, that she knew she were!

She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?

Her eye discourses; I will answer it.

I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,

Having some business, do entreat her eyes

To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

What if her eyes were there, they in her head?

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,

As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven

Would through the airy region stream so bright

That birds would sing and think it were not night.

See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!

O, that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek." I finished in a whisper.

The teacher looked appraisingly at me and then continued with the lesson. I hadn't looked up from my desk since I started. I could feel a blush coming and fought it back. Some students were impressed, most thought I was showing off. Two girls who sat only a few chairs in front of me were looking curiously at me. Trying to decide what I was. They would never learn. Not the whole story anyway. No one here would. I'd had enough stares back home.

I slipped my earphone back in and resumed the Nocturne. The teacher asked a question and I put my hand to my forehead, wiping away a stray hair.

"Bella." He said, looking at me expectantly. Crap.

"Um, could you repeat the question please?"

"What is the common factor in Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night's Dream?"

"Um, there are a few. One of the more touched upon subjects, is that Shakespeare's treatment of female characters is misogynistic."

I shut up.

I don't even think the teacher knew what I was talking about. But he nodded and drew upon my example for the rest of the lesson. I lay my head on my arms, listening to the Nocturnes I had, trying to ignore the stares. By the end of the class, I was asleep. Thanks to my continually restless nights I had very little stamina during the day. My arm being shook woke me.

"Bella?" it was a high soprano voice. "My name is Alice. You are going to be very late for your next class. None of the idiots in the class wanted to talk to you after your performance, so they left you to sleep." She frowned. I stood up quickly, grabbing my bag and thanking her.

"Where are you headed?" she asked.

"Trigonometry." I sighed. She smiled.

"I hate it too. It's where I'm going. If we run we'll make it." She told me.

So we ran, and we made it, only just. Jessica was in this class too, scowling at Alice, for waking me. I picked up that heavy textbook and went to sit beside Alice this time. I looked at her pixie-like hair, her incredibly beautiful, but pale face, and her black eyes. Her sense of style left nothing to be imagined. They were unusual clothing pieces, but designer, expensive, figure flattering and stunning on her. Alice looked at me with interest too, taking in my simple clothing, my expressionless face and my eyes.

"Mr. Cullen!" the teacher yelled. I looked up to see an attractive boy kissing a girl in the doorway of the class. The girl walked off and he sat down at the side. He had pale skin, just like Alice, moved with the same grace, had the same expensive clothes, and the same black eyes.

"I know what you're thinking 'Oh my gosh he's gorgeous' right?" Alice asked rolling her eyes. I looked confusedly at her.

"Um, actually I was wondering if you two were related." I said. Her expression lightened.

"We are, yes. He's my idiot brother, Edward. I have another brother, an almost sister and a boyfriend too."

"Crowded." I said, my mouth turning up into my almost smile. She saw the weak smile and beamed back.

"You have no idea." The teacher started the lesson then he wrote four complex formulas on the board. I stared at them for a few minutes, then dropped my eyes, flipping through my textbook.

"Aren't you going to write them down?" Alice said, pointing at the formulas. I sighed.

"Photographic memory. It's just what to do with the formulas I don't get."

"Photographic memory? Really." She snatched my textbook away from me. "Page seventeen. The picture is of?"

"An elephant, with angle measurements on the see saw it is standing on. Um, seventeen and twenty four, I believe." She flipped back to the page and looked.

"So close. It was seventeen and forty two. But wow. That is pretty incredible." She whispered. I shrugged.

"It's just something else for people to make fun of." I whispered.

The rest of the class we didn't talk. As the class came to an end, Edward got up and walked over to Jessica. He wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her gently. He whispered something that made her giggle and then he led her out of the room. Oh. He was one of those guys. The ones who had several girls trailing after them, while they enjoyed playing with all of them.

I had one more class before lunch; Spanish. There was no need to tell them that I spoke four languages. I had a lot of time suddenly thrust upon me a few years back. I tried to occupy my mind in the spare time, so that I wouldn't think about the event. I learned French, Spanish, Greek and Italian. The European languages were very easy to learn. Once you had the basics of one, you pretty much knew the rest.

Alice's almost sister Rosalie was in my Spanish class. She was outstandingly beautiful, with blonde wavy hair and a swimsuit model's figure. She also looked at me with the same, intense probing eyes. At the end of Spanish I followed her to the lunch room. I grabbed a plate of fries and a coke, sitting down at her table, because she pulled me there. Edward sat across from me. At least his eyes didn't wander like Tyler's. Although, judging by his earlier actions, they probably had, just when I wasn't looking.

"Hello." he said holding out his hand. He had a musical voice.

"Hi." I said, looking back down at the fries, ignoring his hand. Just then, another girl, pretty, wearing skimpy clothing, showed up, kissing him. In that moment Alice arrived, holding hands with another cute boy, who had the same pale, beautiful features as the others.

"This is Rosalie's brother, my boyfriend, Jasper." He nodded at me. I felt calm, whereas before, I had felt nothing, except slight nervousness. Jasper held out his hand and I shook it.

"Jazz."

"Bella." They sat, stealing a few fries from my plate.

They didn't eat, none of them did, but they played hockey, with the fries as sticks and a dime as a puck. Edward was staring at me; his latest bimbo had left. A large boy, who looked more like an adult than a teenager; muscular body, deep voice and curly black hair, introduced himself as Emmet and then he sat on the bench, nestling Rosalie in his arms. All of them were waiting for me to speak. I didn't speak, unless spoken to.

"Bella?" I looked up, to see Alice looking at me intently, her eyes searching again.

"How do you like it here? California is a little different to Phoenix isn't it?" she asked. I nodded.

"At least it's still sunny. And I kind of like the school, so far. Very easy layout."

"One glance at the map?" she asked jokingly. I nodded, smiling my almost smile again.

I finished the fries quickly, watching the ongoing hockey game, between Emmet and Jasper. I then excused myself and went to find somewhere quiet, to sleep. I found an empty stairwell and sat on the windowsill, leaning on the warm glass. I fell swiftly asleep, while evaluating myself in my head;

I was an antisocial freak, with some dark skeletons in my closet, who knew four languages, was very good at English, science, and sports that didn't require hand-eye coordination. I could also dance, sing, act, draw and write poetry. But I hadn't done those since the event.

The event. I still called it that. It wasn't an event. It was a traumatic memory that made me lose my father, Charlie. And it was all because of me.

"Bella?" a far off voice called. A shaking woke me up. I jumped and nearly fell off the windowsill. Alice caught me.

"You have no stamina do you? You're going to be late for biology if you don't hurry." I thanked her again and found my locker, grabbing my bag and making my way to the class, wondering vaguely how she knew I had biology.

I got a textbook and because I entered so close to the bell, everyone was already there, staring at me. I got sent to the one empty seat in the class. It was right beside Edward Cullen. I sat and moved my iPod earphone from one ear to the ear closest to him. He seemed to take the hint because he didn't talk to me.

The teacher gave us a lab, right at the beginning of class. He passed put microscopes to each table and a box of slides. We were to identify the different stages of mitosis happening in each of the slides. I set up the microscope quickly and placed the first slide under, adjusting the focus. After a brief look I sat back and closed my eyes, thinking about it.

"Interphase." I said.

He took a look into the microscope and smiled, lifting one eyebrow questioningly. He took the next slide and almost immediately said; Prophase. I touched his hand, trying to get to the microscope to confirm his identification. A shock passed through my skin. Almost like static electricity charges, though different somehow. I pulled my hand back quickly and he pushed the microscope towards me. When he pulled his hands away I looked. It was prophase. I removed the slide and grabbed the next one. We were done in minutes. It was supposed to take nearly all class. So I closed my eyes and tried to go to sleep again.

"I wouldn't do that." Edward said. I sat up again.

"What?"

"Fall asleep. Banner," he nodded towards the teacher. "is well known for giving excessive detentions to misbehavers."

"Thanks." I said and instead began doodling on a piece of paper.

I drew a flower I had seen a few days ago, quickly, but well. It was a lily of some kind and it took most of the period to finish. Edward kept staring at me. I had to admit, it was unnerving. So I drew with my eyes closed, mostly, unless I needed to add something different to the drawing.

"How do you do that?" Edward asked.

"What?"

"Draw with your eyes closed."

"Practice." I retorted.

"You seemed sociable enough earlier, with Alice. Why are you so different now?" he asked. I was about to turn around and tell him exactly what I thought about playboys like him, when the teacher tapped me on the shoulder.

"No iPods in class. Isabella wasn't it?" he said. He looked at the completed lab, while I was putting the iPod away, ignoring my correction of my name.

"Edward, don't you think you should've let Isabella have a chance?" he asked.

"Bella, identified three of the five." Edward shrugged.

The teacher shrugged and walked off. I sat, pretending I was listening to the teacher. I was actually hearing the rest of the Queen song I had been listening to, in my head. I mouthed the words, watching the overhead projector. Aware that Edward was staring at me again.

"Stop." I said, not looking at him.

"What?"

"Staring."

"Sorry." He said and I felt his gaze leave me.

After Biology I had Gym. I made my way there, well aware that I wasn't going to like what we were doing. However, I arrived on the right week. We were starting rock climbing.

The school here had everything new and expensive. They had two weight rooms, three pools, a permanent rock climbing wall, three gymnasiums, two baseball fields and two football fields.

The gym class consisted of us sitting getting a lecture on rock climbing. I barely listened. I had done more climbing than the instructors, I'd wager. I knew knots that you weren't supposed to use, but worked better, I knew knots that you were supposed to use and worked badly. I knew how to climb a wall tilted at an almost parallel angle to the floor, while the climber hung on, upside-down like a spider on a ceiling. We had straight walls, safety equipment and foam mats. I'd be fine. I could probably climb the wall with my eyes closed.

Then school ended. I walked slowly, after everyone had already rushed to go home. I got to my locker and organised my books. I then made my way to my car. My iPod was in my pocket, instead I put on a CD in the car. It was a very unknown band – Enigma – and the music was halfway between rock and ambient. I loved it. I sat listening to the CD in my car and then heard a tap at my window. It was Alice.

"What are you, some kind of stalker?" I snapped. Then my hand flew over my mouth. I took two deep breaths and tried that again. "Sorry, you just surprised me. I don't get many people wanting to be my friends, nowadays."

The hurt look that had momentarily crossed her face disappeared.

"I'll be your friend based on your answer to the question I'm about to ask you." She said, though I could tell that whatever my answer, she'd be my friend anyway.

"Shoot."

"What do you think of my brother?" she asked. I knew who she meant, but played it dumb anyway.

"Emmet is really great. He's kind of scary, but fun looking." I said. She glared. "Edward you mean?" I thought carefully about my answer. I didn't want to offend her, but I didn't lie either.

"As far as I can tell, he's a good-looking jerk, with no respect for women's feelings and every respect for the lack of clothes they wear." I said, carefully. She laughed in response.

"I knew I liked you for a reason! You can actually think clearly around him?" she probed.

"Yes." That was a little lie. Every time I stared into his eyes, I lost my train of thought. So I stopped looking into his eyes, thus, retaining my thought process. Alice looked overjoyed.

"Awesome! I'll see you tomorrow Bella!" she said and bounded off, with a grace that belonged on a runway.

I drove home, confused by her reaction. When I got home, Ali and Pete weren't there, so I began to move my stuff down the stairs on my own. I actually got finished; I didn't have that much stuff here. So I went to sleep. I woke up around six, when Ali and Pete got home. I decided to make them dinner; fajitas. They did the dishes after, thanking me. I liked the extremely spacious kitchen. All of the rooms had high ceilings and very open layouts, but the kitchen had a cold, hard feeling to it that I liked.

"So how was your school day?"

"Great. I made a few friends." I said.

"Who?" Pete asked, casually, though I could see he was worried about me fitting in.

"Alice and Emmet Cullen, Rosalie and Jasper Hale." I said, remembering their last names.

"They're good kids." Pete nodded, approvingly. "How about your classes? I heard you didn't like gym."

"Back in Phoenix, no I didn't, but here, for the next few weeks we have rock climbing and then swimming, and I love those, then I think we're on to dancing."

"So you're not good with balls then?"

"Just the hand-eye coordination." I shrugged. "Hey, I have a lot of homework, but then I'm going to swim for a little, is that okay?" I asked. They both nodded. Ali kissed me, hugging me hard.

"Do you need help moving your things?" she asked.

"No, it's already done." I said.

I did the little trigonometry homework I had, but it took me a while, because I couldn't keep my eyes open. I then swam. I swam from eight until ten; nonstop lengths of front stroke, side stroke, back stroke, until the pool lights came on. The lights came on at ten, if someone was in the pool. So I got out and heard them shut down, I dried off, climbed into bed and fell asleep.

I was walking through the crowd, towards the coat room. The music was blaring in my ears. I needed the ten bucks I had left in my coat pocket. I was rummaging through the masses of coats, trying to find mine when he found me.

"Bella, my love. I was looking for you!" he said. I looked at him. He was much older than myself, and I didn't recognize him.

"Sorry, do I know you? Are you a friend of Charlie's?" I asked. His muscular figure was covered by a white shirt. I could see an odd design on it. It was splattered with what looked like red paint.

"That freak is gone. He wouldn't tell me where you were. I got worried about you." As he moved closer, I began to smell the blood.

"What do you mean gone?" I asked, my voice rising in hysteria.

"To hell, where the freak belonged." He said, opening his arms and moving towards me.

I tried to run, but he was faster and stronger. I tried to fight, but he was on top of me, his hands groping at my body. Being so gentle yet rough, cautious yet intrusive. I tried to scream, but my dry throat, and the loud music covering the sound made it impossible to be heard. He knew it too.

After he was done with me, I was too shocked to move. I had been hurt beyond belief; mentally, physically and emotionally. But all I could think about was Charlie. I ran out of the room as soon as he was gone. I drove home and got to the house, the door was open and there was blood on the floor as I entered. I slipped and fell landing on Charlie's body. His eyes were open, staring into mine. I screamed and screamed and screamed.

I woke up screaming again. I sat up and opened the back door, leading out to the pool. I sat on its edge. I splashed my face with pool water. I tried to slow my breathing. As I sat calming myself I had that eerie feeling of being watched again.

"Snap out of it Bella." I heard myself say. "You're getting paranoid. No one is up at two in the morning. Except you. Always you." I shuddered and stood, wiping my face.

Despite my efforts, I still ran inside, scared of whatever was watching, if something was watching. I was too awake to go back to sleep, so I cracked into my trig homework again. I caught four mistakes I'd made earlier. I finished it all and then took a shower. The hot water loosened the tight muscles and helped to relax me. I was on the other side of the house, the furthest possible place from Ali and Peter, so they heard neither my screaming nor my shower. I towel dried my hair and grabbed my iPod, finding Chopin's Nocturnes and falling asleep. When I next awoke, it was six o'clock. I began to make Ali and Pete breakfast and they came down, looking more rested than they had yesterday.

"Better?" I asked, smiling. My first small smile since I'd got here. They hugged me.

"Very. You didn't sleep too well though did you? You still look tired."

"Two-oh-nine till three thirty I was up."

"Why?"

"I had a shower and did my homework again. I had tons of mistakes."

"Oh, baby." Ali cried. She felt guilty. So I put my cheeriest attitude on.

"After breakfast I'm going to get dressed and drive straight to school okay? I want to meet Alice before school, talk with her a little. Get to know her." This seemed to cheer both of them up significantly.

I left my hair down today, sliding on a blue-black tank top and a black skirt. It was knee length, nothing flashy, but it swayed when it moved. I slipped on a pair of black shorts underneath and slid my black sneakers on. I got into the car and plugged my iPod in, letting it charge. I drove slowly to school today, listening still, to Enigma's Cross of Changes.

I got to the school and was elated to see that only one other car was here. Alice was arguing with Edward. She looked livid, scary even. Still talking. I had learned to read lips, mostly because I wanted to know what the whispers and rumours were about in my old school. When I found out it was me, I had stopped trying to read lips.

...six or seven girls trailing after you.

I missed his response; he was turned away from me.

You are ridiculous Edward. I don't care if you want to 'get to know' her.

Whatever your reasons, stay away from her Edward. She's healing. From what I don't know, but she doesn't need you trying to play her like you do the others.

Yes you do. You play them. You play with them.

She saw me and took a few deep breaths. Rosalie, Jasper and Emmet climbed out of the back of the car. They came over, rubbing their ears.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Those two can really scream if they want to." Jazz sighed. I started to feel uncomfortable, staring at Alice's expression and then Jasper put his hand on my shoulder. I looked at him.

"Take it easy, they always do this. Today it's about ethics, yesterday it was music." I felt calmer when I looked at him, even though I knew the conversation was about me. Alice came out of the car next, looking pleased.

"I won that one." She announced. Emmet sighed and handed Rosalie a ten dollar bill. I stood there, not quite knowing how to react.

"Black again?" Alice asked looking me over. "I love the tank/skirt combo, but some colour would be nice!"

"I don't like coloured clothing. It says too much about someone."

"Black counts as a colour." Alice pointed out.

"I thought it was a shade." I retorted. She looked as though she was about to get angry with me, but she sighed. Emmet was the next to speak.

"Are you okay? You always look tired." He said circling his eyes with his finger, indicating that I had black rings around my eyes.

"I don't sleep well at night. I sleep better during the day." I shrugged.

"What are you a vampire or something?" he laughed, but there was a subtle change in his eyes when he said the word vampire. I ignored it.

"No. Maybe I just don't like the dark." I reasoned and began to walk off. I randomly sat in the middle of a patch of grass and lay back, absorbing the sunlight.

"Do you dance?" Alice asked suddenly, sitting by me.

"What?"

"You have a grace about your movements, you walk on the quiet parts of your feet and you sank very easily to the ground, without wobbling."

"And all of this indicates that I'm a dancer?" I asked, incredulously. I had to watch her; she was very observant. She smiled.

"Well, no. But it would make for interesting conversation." Alice said. I sighed.

"I don't like lying, so if you ask intelligent enough questions I will answer truthfully."

"Do you dance?" Alice repeated.

"I used to. I quit about two years ago."

"Why?"

"Because my heart wasn't in it anymore." I answered truthfully, yet evasively. Charlie loved it when I danced. I couldn't dance a single step after his death. His murder.

"What kind?"

"Not answering. It's a stupid question." She pouted and I smiled. It was more confident, but still not quite a smile.

"Did you finish your trig homework?"

"Yes."

"Can I see it? I like to check my work against other people's. You can do the same."

I stood and went back to my car.

Edward and Jessica were kissing, leaning against my car door. I waited for them to notice me. They didn't. I looked back at Alice and she got up looking angry. But I had my own idea. I hit the panic button on my car keys. The alarm sounded and both of them jumped, breaking apart and moving away from my car. Jessica glared at me.

I shrugged and grabbed my schoolbag from the car. Walking back to Alice who was laughing.

"I like you! I like the way you deal with things!"

"You don't need to protect me, you know."

"What?"

"From your brother. I don't want people arguing over me."

"You heard that?" She asked looking at me carefully.

"I have good hearing." I answered evasively.

My hearing was good. But not that good. We dropped the subject as I placed my book beside her. We had nearly identical answers, but she and I had rounded differently. I rounded to two decimals, she rounded to one. We both walked to English, while she talked about random events. I listened intently; for some reason, I felt happier around her and her family, well most of her family, because they were different. They were nice, cautious and mysterious. They were also hiding something, what it was I didn't know, but they were hiding it. Something to even the playing field between us.

At the beginning of English I talked to both Rosalie and Alice. I then tuned out again as the teacher started to explain an essay topic. I wrote down the topic and then my thesis, my points and some examples I remembered from the book. That was today's lesson and tomorrow's done. I began my outline of my essay and by the time the teacher was done explaining how to construct a thesis, I was done it. The bell rang. I worked more slowly in trig, and, with Alice's help, understood a great deal more than the teacher had explained. In Spanish I slept. When the bell rang, Rosalie poked me, and pulled me, in my zombie like state, to the lunch table. I slept there too until Alice asked me if I'd eaten anything.

"Not hungry." I replied and fell asleep again. The bell rang and I managed to stumble my way to biology.

"Are you an insomniac?" Edward Cullen asked.

"If I was that, would I be trying to stay awake now?"

"At night, I mean. It's the only reason I can think of that would make you sleep so much during the day."

"Mind your own business."

"Tell me, does this antisocial attitude reflect on everybody or is it just me?" he asked. I turned to stare at him, avoiding his eyes.

"Just you."

"Why?"

"Because, from what I've seen, you are a shallow, uncaring man-whore, who plays around with his little girl-toys, messing with their feelings, confusing them, and then cheating on them, right in front of their eyes. They won't say anything because you're so 'perfect' the fact that you chose them at all astounds them. I will not be one of your toys. I will not be materialized, possessed like some piece of designer clothing you happen to like one day and drop the next. You are an evil person because of what you are doing to them, and I hope karma comes back to hit you. Hard."

He stared at me with his mouth open.

I put both earphones in my ear, slid my iPod down my shirt and pulled my hair around my face. The teacher couldn't see it, and now I didn't have to listen to him, or Edward.

I sat, listening to Enigma, I was too angry for classical, but I wanted to stay calm, so I avoided the heavy rock. Edward sat, angry, paralyzed and confused all period. When the bell rang, I walked off to go to the rock climbing gym.