A/N: Well, hello there!

Let's try this note again. (The first one was about a novel itself, and I know that's not what you came here for.)

I am super excited for this fic. I've been thinking about and planning it for well over a year. I do have a large idea that sort of sparked it that will definitely be revealed by the end, but I really don't want it revealed too early. Because of that...

NOTE: I ask that if you have an idea about the plot or future events of the story (basically, if you think you've figured it out), please PM me rather than post it in a review.

I really do love reviews, so I'm not saying not to. (Granted, I also love PMs XD ) Just please don't post guesses in them. (It will spoil my fun too. jkjk)

This is the official first chapter, so the preview has been removed. This may cause some issues with email updates (saying things such as Chapter 2: Chapter 1) but I don't think it will cause any problems. Ya'll are smart. :D

I do have this fic fully mapped out, so I just have to go about actually writing the chapters (but I still don't really know how many chapters this will be, since the end of this one sort of snuck up on me).

However, I do start a real, adult, full-time job soon (someone hired me for some reason XD ) along with keeping my part-time, so I no longer own my time. I've sold it all for rent money. (I don't think I'm going to be taking the third job I was offered, so I will still have a small amount of free time). But this means that I do not currently have a posting schedule for this fic.

I'm going to throw it out there that I hope to get the second chapter written within the next three weeks. (But like literally no promises. if you're betting, it's better to say that I will not uphold this.)

(I redid this note and its still massive.)

Oh, I should mention that I am not really creative at all. None of these characters are mine (neither the normal or reverse versions). A lot of these ideas probably aren't mine. I've been reading these fics for so long that I can't tell what is common knowledge, what I accidentally stole from others, and what I actually came up with. That being said, if you notice something in this that is expressedly your idea (or someone else's idea), just let me know. I promise I do not mean to steal anything. (It probably was just that I loved the idea so much that I just burned it into my brain.) So! I'm going to go right out and say that probably most of these ideas are not mine and are simply being recycled cause I liked them and I really wrote this for fun and figured that said ideas would be fun to include.

And, for those who don't read the notes:

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NOTE: If you think you've figured something out or predicted something in the plot, please make sure the send me a PM rather than a review. I don't want too much to be revealed too soon. (Also, I love PMs :D )

I heard the shift next to me, forcing my eyes to continue sifting through my locker. He wasn't so scary when I didn't look at him.

"Where were you yesterday, Pumpkin?" Don't look at him. Don't look at him.

"Sick," I spoke to my locker.

He inched closer. "You seem fine today."

"Yep. That's how it works. You get sick, you get better." It was a lot easier to be brave when I didn't have his eyes piercing through me.

With his slam of my locker door, I felt all my courage wisp away in a gasp. There were his sharp blue eyes, staring me down once again. "Maybe you aren't quite well after all. I wonder what kind of virus you must have to be activating such brave parts of your brain."

"I… I, uh…" Those eyes. Did he ever blink?

"Hmm. Such a sudden mood change, you must really be ill." He slid even closer, bringing a hand up as if to check my temperature.

Moving my arm up to block him, I stepped to the side. "No, I-I'm fine. I'm just going to class." I was hoping he didn't offer to walk with me there.

Hardly seeing the swift movement, my path was blocked by his arm as he leaned against the lockers. "Oh, no, dear Pumpkin. We must get you to the infirmary immediately." He spun around, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along. My protests were fully ignored as we walked.

After turning a few corners, he pushed me into the nurse's office. I glanced around quickly, hoping to see someone (really, anyone) else in the dimness. Much to my dismay, the small room contained only the furniture and various medical things. I was pushed onto one of the cots as Eddward took a seat on a chair against the wall.

I froze, half lying on the cot, with my elbows supporting my weight. I stared at him for a moment, "I'm supposed to be in class." I stated this with mild conviction, yet remained where I was, waiting for his permission to leave.

He let out a small huff. "Just stay here and relax. I guarantee you will not be counted absent."

"I already told you that I'm fine." I sat up, hoping to leave until I saw those eyes once again. They seemed to glow in the darkness. I gave a small sigh and plopped onto the cushions.

"See, not so bad." He turned his attention to the far wall, propping his chin up with his elbow on the armrest. I watched him for a moment before cursing my loose mouth as I felt a question slipping out.

"Why do you even want me here?" No matter how much time I spent around this guy, I still couldn't keep my thoughts to myself.

"We cannot have you walking around the school when you may be contagious."

I glanced away from him with a slight huff, "But I'm not! I'm fine!" He gave no response for a moment but simply stared at me.

I didn't even have to look to know his eyes were sizing me up. "But you weren't yesterday?"

"Yeah." My fingers found each other as I began to pick at my nails.

I heard the shuffle as he stood and moved towards my cot. "You are currently telling me that yesterday you were ill enough to stay home from school, yet today you are back to perfect health?"

I shrugged slightly, "I guess."

"Now, remind me. Was it not you that carried an entire box of tissues throughout the school when you had a cold? What about when the nurse forcibly sent you home when you had the flu? Also, that time when you—"

"Yeah, yeah! Okay. That was me. What of it?"

"What made you stay home yesterday?"

"…"

"You obviously were not ill."

"I just did."

"You are not a delinquent. You do not simply skip school."

I shrugged. It was obviously not the answer he wanted as he moved to rest a knee on the cot. Edd seemed much taller as he loomed over me, clearly frustrated with my lack of answers.

"Just answer me, Pumpkin. What kept you from school?"

I fidgeted for a moment. "It wasn't anything big, really. It doesn't matter."

"It clearly mattered yesterday."

"It's nothing. You're just making it into a big deal."

"Pumpkin." His tone was completely different, one I had learned not to ignore.

"Okay, fine. I was just scared or whatever. It was stupid."

He seemed to back off slightly. It almost seemed as if he was trying to give off a less threatening manner. "Scared of what?"

"Nothing. I told you; it was a mistake. Man, you're worse than my parents."

He didn't even reply. He simply continued to stare at me with his stupid eyes. I crossed my arms in front of me before I finally couldn't stand it. "Ugh, fine! Someone was making fun of me or whatever the other day, and a teacher found out. The guy got all pissed and said I ratted on him. I guess I'm just a wimp or whatever, so I got freaked out. It was stupid, and it doesn't matter. So, that's it. Whatever."

Edd seemed to process the situation for a moment before anger took over his features. I instinctively pushed myself back into the cot, even though it did not gain me any distance. He stood and began to pace, turning back to me a moment later. "Did he injure you?"

I simply shrugged, lacking any courage to speak. With that, he closed the distance once again. "Did he do something to you?"

"I don't know, not really. He just sort of pushed me."

He leaned over, grabbing my wrist. "Show me."

"Sh-show you what?"

"Where you've been injured, of course."

"I-I'm not… I'm fine." I pulled back on my arm, keeping my eyes to the floor.

"Why must you be so difficult about everything?" He pulled me so I was fully sitting up. "Just show me."

I rolled my eyes slightly before turning myself around. I lifted the back of my shirt to reveal the small line of bruising where the locker hinge had dug into my back. I felt him pull my shirt up farther as he reached over to flip a light switch. The bulb directly above the cot flickered into a steady hum, and he continued to stare. I flinched slightly as the pads of his fingers pressed lightly into a particularly tender area. He quickly pulled his hand away before returning to pacing around the room. I straightened my shirt and leaned back once more.

"Who was it?"

I began to shrug once more before catching the look in his eyes. "I don't know. We didn't really introduce ourselves." My tone was soft, defeated.

"You don't even know his name?"

"No. He's just some guy. On the lacrosse team, I guess."

"Okay…"

"Number 14, maybe."

"The captain?"

"Apparently."

Edd began to get agitated again, seeming almost twitchy.

"I don't see why this is such a big deal. It doesn't matter that much."

"Of course, it matters."

"But why? And why do you even care?"

He let out a small huff, "I don't like my things being touched." His answer seemed to come so natural, although the idea was so foreign.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "I'm not your possession."

I could see him falter slightly. He moved back to sit in the chair, almost closing in on himself. "No, I suppose you're not."

I couldn't help but take a small bit of pride from the fact that he had just about admitted he was wrong. It took everything I had to keep the smile off my face.

After a few minutes, I felt myself going crazy from boredom. "Can I go to class now?" Still leaning back against the cot, I rolled my head to the side to glance at Edd. He hadn't moved a muscle (had he even blinked?) and remained in the chair with his head held up by his arm.

He had seemed to jolt a bit at my question as if he had forgotten where we were. "I suppose." He moved towards the nurse's desk, opening a drawer and pulling out a pink pad of paper. His movements were quick as he signed the form and handed it to me.

"Uh, thanks." I grabbed my bag that had been abandoned by the cot and moved towards the door, pausing before pushing it open, keeping myself from asking why he had the authority to sign hall passes. I slipped into the hall and headed to history.

I headed to Biology after, half hoping that Eddward had decided to skip and remain in the nurse's office. I clearly had no such luck since he was seated in the classroom before anyone else. As the bell rang, I could already feel that I had missed something big the previous day. Once the students quieted down, the teacher announced that we were to return to our groups to get research topics and hypotheses approved. Having missed group formations, I sat in my seat as movement filled the classroom. I glanced around to try to figure out who I had been partnered with. Before I knew it, a desk had been pushed across from mine. I looked up to see Eddward sitting down and pulling a notebook and pencil out of his bag.

Before I could even ask, he spoke to fill me in, "Since you were gone yesterday, your group was decided for you. I took it upon myself to bring a few ideas as I figured you were too deathly ill."

I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. "Yeah, whatever. Just tell me what you came up with." He listed a few options, all well thought through and creative. I couldn't even bring myself to pick one as they all sounded so interesting. Eddward discussed them almost with himself, pointing out the benefits and flaws of each. We finally decided on one that was complex enough to be interesting but seemed simple enough to research and report on.

"We should begin to work on this today. We can study at my house."

"Yeah, that's fine."

"All right, wait for me after school and we can head there together."

"Wait, why can't I just go home?"

"I merely have to attend to a few things for the swim team. It should not take very long at all."

I didn't really want to argue with him, "Okay, whatever. I'll just go sit in the library or something"

"That is fine. I will come find you when I am done… Let me see your phone for a moment."

The request seemed to me to be out of nowhere, but I couldn't think of an excuse to say no. I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it over. I saw him tap at the screen a bit before handing it back. Upon inspection, I saw that he had saved his number and sent himself a text message in order to save mine.

The teacher soon came by and approved our idea with plenty of enthusiasm. Something that didn't seem to phase Eddward.

I lounged around the library for about twenty minutes before my phone went off, informing me that Eddward was done and was on his way to find me. I dropped my book back into my bag and headed out towards the athletic wing. As I neared the gym, I could hear the shouts and voices of the many jocks practicing their respective sports throughout the many rooms. Figuring I was pushing my luck enough, I leaned against the wall just outside the hall to wait.

A couple minutes later, Eddward stepped out of the locker room looking generally pissed, which was just my luck. He seemed to be thinking hard about something, almost walking right past me.

I saw his face change, appearing to lighten as he noticed me. "Oh, Pumpkin. What are you doing here? I thought you were going to wait in the library."

I took a second before answering, trying to figure out his mood. "I, uh… yeah. I got your text, so I figured I would, like, meet you part way or whatever."

"Oh! I see. Well, then, shall we head out?" As we made our way through the halls, I kept an eye out for Mr. Lacrosse-team-captain. He had some promises with which he could still follow through.

We made it quietly out of the front doors and turned towards the cul-de-sac. As we crossed the street, Eddward began to rattle off different ideas for our research.

We had fully engulfed Eddward's kitchen table with research supplies. We had multiple textbooks open to various pages, a few notebooks, both our laptops, and even an old encyclopedia strewn across the surface.

"I'm starting to think that picking such a current topic was a really bad choice." I rubbed at my eyes a bit, having been staring at the computer screen for well over an hour.

"That was one of the challenges we discussed before deciding." Eddward was flipping through some pages of a textbook.

"Yeah, but I didn't think it was going to be this hard." I stretched my back a bit before going back to my computer. "Maybe we should find something with more information published."

"You were the one that pushed for this idea in the first place, but if you want to change, I suppose we still have that option."

"Yeah, I know I did." I sighed a bit, searching for something else we could use. Eddward continued to flip through the textbook as I became more anxious as the silence grew. "Look. I'm sorry you got stuck with me or whatever. We can just do whatever topic you want. It would probably be easier that way anyway."

"It is not that much of a problem. We have only just begun. It would be better if we switched now when not much time has been wasted."

I sighed a bit, "You're right. What were the other ideas you had?"

Eddward pulled out his list again before turning towards his computer, "I will just email our teacher to inform her of the change."

The next day, Eddward had his desk next to mine before I could even take a seat. Having been given work time for our projects, it was clear that he didn't intend to waste a second of it. We got right to work and didn't even pause until the bell rang.

Eddward began to gather his things, "I have to meet with someone for a short time today, but in the case that it should run long, you should leave before me. I shall send you a message when I have arrived home."

"Uh, sure" I nodded before heading out, glad I didn't have to sit around for him again.

His message came through to my phone not even ten minutes after I stepped inside. I rolled my eyes as I lifted myself from the comfortable spot on the couch, heading over with my schoolbag.

He barely gave me a greeting before leading the way inside. We set up at his kitchen table again and got to work. We continued to discuss the project as Eddward pulled open his laptop. His hand was clearly beginning to bruise with a few open cuts along a couple of the knuckles. I didn't even try to ask him about it. It was well known throughout the school that he could be violent, which was one reason why most of the students, including myself, avoided him. No one really knew what set him off.

Pushing the feeling of anxiety from my stomach, I focused on our project, continuing a debate we had started during class. "I just think that a pie chart would be a good visual representation."

"It is not the correct graphical type to use in this situation. We need to simply use a chart or a scatter plot." He seemed to be already frustrated with me.

"But it would look cool! And I've never got to use a pie chart before."

Eddward glanced towards me for a second, apparently trying to gauge if I was serious, "Pumpkin, it is simply incorrect. To use one would be an improper representation of the type of data we are using." His tone was hard to tell, but felt calculating, like he was trying to keep from yelling.

I didn't really know how to respond. I wanted to convince him, but I didn't want to push my luck and make him angry. I really did want to use a pie chart though, and I finally had the chance to. I quickly reached over for a textbook in the middle of the table. "Okay, but this one used like the same stuff we are, and it's a pie chart." I saw, rather than felt, my arm push into Eddward's glass of water, unable to react quickly enough to stop it from leaning towards his laptop. Eddward, on the other hand, apparently had faster reflexes than me and steadied the glass before it spilled.

He moved the glass to the corner of the table, in between us, and scooted his computer towards the other side, "I do not want to lose points on this because 'pie charts are cool.' We will use the proper graph."

I just nodded my head and continued to work quietly while Eddward seemed to stew in his anger. I kept focusing on him, glancing out of the corner of my eye, trying to keep watch since he was in such a bad mood. I was finally starting to settle down when I saw the movement of his arm towards me. Feeling my body react before I could fully comprehend the situation, I clenched my eyes shut and turned my face away. My arm raised up, instinctively bracing myself for the blow that my brain was sure would come. After a half moment without any pain, I managed to open my eyes, just in time to see a pained look on Eddwards face. I felt my own cheeks begin to heat up and turned away from him.

I heard his computer close as he stood. "I believe we are done for today." He simply left the room, heading upstairs. Glad to be left to deal with my embarrassment, I stood and packed my stuff, not saying anything as I walked out.

I stood on Eddward's porch, waiting for him to answer the door. I wasn't even fully sure we were working together as I hadn't heard a word from him through the entire day. Biology was a normal lecture day, and he was gone before the bell finished ringing at the end of class. I took a guess and partially just wanted to get the report finished as soon as possible.

The door opened slowly, and he motioned for me to come in, still silent. We set up once again and got to work. We had really been making good progress. Having all but finished the research and background, Eddward was working on writing up our methods as I plotted our data onto a scatterplot. I had been placing the data onto a spreadsheet as we gathered it, trying to be as organized as possible. As I input the information for the graph, I noticed that it didn't seem quite right. My stomach dropped as the plot came up, confirming my suspicions. I tried to stay optimistic, thinking that it was just that I had input the data incorrectly. I tried again… and again… and again.

"Fuck," I dropped my head into my hands, freaking out inside.

"Language," Eddward stated this with an uninterested tone.

I stared at my spacebar for a few moments, trying to decide how I would tell him. I had no idea how to explain how bad I messed up. We would have to start from the beginning as none of the data we gathered were what we needed. It was hours of work that not only were wasted but had to be done all over again. This meant that we were not going to finish early; we would be lucky to finish on time. This also meant that I had to spend that much more time with Eddward.

A small cough pulled me back to Eddward's kitchen. It was clear that he had noticed my distress and was waiting for me to tell him about it. I simply groaned, not quite able to find the words. "Shit."

"Language, Pumpkin." He reminded me again.

I blatantly ignored him. "I'm a dumbass, such a fucking dumbass." I dropped my head further into my arms. "I don't know how I could be so stupid." Eddward silently stared at me.

"I don't even know what we're gonna do. Fuck. I'm an idiot. God, I'm sorry I'm such a shitty partner."

"You're being dramatic."

I sat up quickly, "But seriously, anyone else would have been a better partner. Shit, even the stupidest kids in class wouldn't've messed up this bad. And, like, everyone else would have been much better. God, like Collin. I bet you would have no problems being partners with him, much better than me, at least. But really anyone would have been better. Fuck."

"Kevin, enough."

I was startled enough to remain silent, dropping my head back onto my arms.

"Do you really believe that other students would have been a better option?"

"Yes! I fucked everything up. I got the wrong data; what we have won't work. We're going to have to start over."

"So? I do not see how that makes you any less than any other student in our class."

"No one else would have messed up this bad. Anyone else would have just done what you told them."

"Exactly. How does that make someone a better partner? At least you take initiative and figure things out for yourself."

"But what about Collin? He would have been smarter than this."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Yeah, but it's prob'ly true. I bet you would have picked anyone else if you were given the choice."

"But I did not."

I stared at him for a second, confused, "What?"

"I did not choose someone else. I chose you."

I could feel my mouth fall open. "What? But why?"

"Why not?"

"I don't know, plenty of reasons? I suck at biology. I suck at research. I suck at writing. Other people are better at all those things. Oh, and how about you hate me?"

I could see him roll his eyes, "I do not."

I was getting angry, feeling like he was messing with me, "What do you mean?"

He finally looked up at me, "I do not hate you."

"Wait, like, seriously?"

"Of course. And, frankly, I am not sure how you developed such an idea."

"I don't know. You mess with me and make fun of me, like, daily."

Eddward looked back to his computer with a chuckle, "You are very dramatic. Well, we better begin gathering the correct data. It should not take long this time, and we should not be put too far off track."

I turned my laptop with a nod. It seemed that the conversation was over, leaving me with plenty of questions.