Twelve Roses on My Door Step

A/N: I already posted this story but then I deleted it. So here it is … today's my birthday review! =D

Summary: In Edwards junior year he meets the new girl at school; Bella. They fall in love in a few short months, but Edward is infected by the swine flu. One day, Bella goes to the hospital to see him and he is missing w/ no record of his death. Bella sets out to find him.

It was the first day of junior year, in late August when I saw her. Walking into school, almost late as always, I saw her conferencing with the principal, Mr. Greene. I'd never seen her before. And she wasn't just something new to look at, she was actually… beautiful! I continued to walk toward them, she smelled like fresh strawberries, but it was altered due to the fact that the principal who smelled like cigars and vanilla stood next to her. I walked down the hallway just far enough to turn around and talk to the co-caption of my football team, and spy on her and the principal.

"Supp" I said to my best friend Emmett.

"I'm great me and rose are going to hang after school, football practice tomorrow, game Friday, and, no school for labor day or whatever holiday is on Tuesday; more time with my girl, rose. She's so hot!"

"Oh, uh, cool" I mumbled, and pushed my bronze hair back, still staring at the beauty standing with Mr. Greene

Emmett had a confused look on his face, until he turned around and saw the girl Edward was staring at. "Ooh" Emmett boomed "well you are the big man a campus now; being the football captain, and all, so go get her!"

I rolled my eyes, and chuckled quietly.

Emmett slammed his locker and met up with Rosalie, for a before class make out session. Now that is a perfect couple, I thought. Cheerleading captain and football player, they fit together like two puzzle pieces. They were good together; like peanut butter, and jelly. He thought of how his mom used to make him peanut butter and jelly, and of what a frail sensitive boy he used to be. He was never going to be like that again. He was now a tall, lanky, quiet, young man who would soon join the army. Quiet; that was the only trait he had kept from his childhood.

Edward tried to shake of all of his embarrassing, old memories, talk to the girl, and get to class on time. Those were hard shoes to fill…

I walked toward Jasper, a friend I had me this summer, and lucky for me his locker was also still in view of the girl.

"Hey Jasper!" I greeted, he was a friend I had taken a great liking to very quickly. He always has a way with his emotions, he's not emotional, and he can just… influence your emotions.

"Hey" he said glumly.

"Jazz?" I asked "What's wrong?" I was really interested, Jasper was never upset, and his saddened emotions were starting sink in on me.

"Kelly broke up with me" he sighed.

Kelly was jasper's girl friend. Well, ex-girlfriend as of now. They had an early summer fling, and they got together exclusively a few weeks later. Apparently Jasper had taken their relationship more seriously than Kelly had.

"Aw, I'm sorry Jazz" I told him "she's not that cool anyway if she can't take a serious relationship she doesn't deserve you"

"Ok" he sighed.

"No! Seriously, you're great; you're going to find another girl in no time! I promise" i encouraged.

"OK, well I am pretty great…" he said positively "thanks!" Jasper walked to class smiling hopefully. That was odd; usually Jasper is the one influencing me.

I looked up to see where the girl had gone, but she was out of sight. There was five minutes until the bell rang to go to class. Could that be enough time to find her? I pondered. Yes, I thought, answering my own question. I scanned the hallway for her, looking left, then to my right. She wasn't here, there are were only the same old familiar faces here, so I wandered up to the second floor, where my first class—and locker—happened to be, which was English with Ms. Clark.

The second floor was where I saw her, with a pallid yellow Areopostale shirt and blue jean capri pants. She was fumbling with her books at her locker, while looking at her schedule. I was slowly approaching her, and there weren't many people in the hallway. I rushed up to get her books when she dropped them, she was obviously clumsy. She had also crouched down to retrieve her books. Our eyes met for a long moment. Her muddy brown pupils bored into my strikingly emerald eyes. We rose together, our eyes still meeting. A warm sensation began to creep up through my neck and my cheeks. Was I, Edward Cullen, blushing?!? I broke eye contact when a teacher slammed the door in first day frustration. Her eyes were still imbedded in my mind. I quickly snapped my eyes back to her. She stared into my eyes for another small moment of time. If she wasn't going to introduce herself, I was. I could feel the warmth staining my cheeks more. Say something…

"Hi" I said as smoothly as possible. I handed the books to her "I'm Edward Cullen"

"Hi, uhh, thanks" she said while blushing, I wondered why "I'm Bella Swan."

"You're very welcome" I said "so you're new here?"

"Yeah, I came to live with my dad here in Forks" she answered.

"Where did you come from?" I laughed.

"Arizona" she smiled, her blush getting deeper.

"Wow!" I was very surprised. "That's far, why did you want to come here? This is one of the rare sunny days we do have! It rains nonstop; it's going to be tough to get used to!"

"Yeah," she agreed "it is going to be tough."

"Well…" I said flashing her smile "maybe I could help you with that. . ."

"Hmm" she giggled "maybe…"

"So what's your first class?"

"Uhh" she said flipping her schedule over "English with Ms. Clark"

"Cool, that my first class, too" I said casually "would you like me to walk you there?"

"Yes, please" she answered blushing, again.

"Clark is really nice," I said blabbing about our school "I had her last, year because I was in advanced English. Are you in advanced English, too?"

"Yep" she nodded, as we walked into the class. God, what stupid question, with such obvious answers! Get to know her, Edward! I thought. Too late, I thought, just as we walked into the class room.

"Mary Alice? Mary Alice Brandon; third row, third seat." Ms. Clark said in a high bird like voice, standing by the counter in her room.

"Alice" she clarified dismally.

"Excuse me?" Ms. Clark asked.

"Alice, I like to be called Alice, it's what everyone has called me since kindergarten" she said each word distinctly, and loudly.

"Ok, then Alice, it is!" she said overly cheerful.

Alice seemed depressed so far this year. I should know. I was her best friend. It all happen in the eighth grade, when her father died, she hasn't been the same since. She's given up everything. Actually she's let go of everything; friends, happiness, sanity. I hurt to see her spiral down this far, always wearing black, always having a pained look on her face, so pale. Yet she's not emo or goth, she's just different. She's in her own little world. As if when she resurfaces—if she ever does—people are going to just accept the fact that she was mostly antisocial for so many years, and skipped most of ninth grade, I wish she would listen to me. I try a few times every year to invite her back to, well, reality but she just never shows up to the party. The latest rumor I heard about her was that she has been in rehab this summer.

Sometimes I think it's not just her dad that died, maybe it was something more, something she wouldn't tell me, something she wouldn't, couldn't tell anyone. Ms. Clark interrupted my thoughts with her parrot voice, standing a few feet in front of me.

"Edward?" she squeaked "Edward? Are you okay? Will you please take your assigned seat now?"

I must have looked like an idiot just standing there. "Oh, uh yes, sorry ma'am, where do I sit?"

"Third row fifth seat, ha that's my Edward; clueless, ultra-daydreamer! You know, I'm still surprised you got all A's in this class!" Ms. Clark smiled.

"Yeah me, too" I said embarrassed.

A few people started laughing, Brady, a football player, walked past me, after Ms. Clark announced where he sat.

"Yeah, eddies too interested in all those girls to really notice anything else!" Brady said obnoxiously loud in his slightly British accent that he'd obtained over the year even though he was born in Texas. From where he obtained it I will never know. Could this day really get any more embarrassing? I asked myself "Yeah, but too bad he was too shy to ask at least one of the out, poor Edward!"Brady started howling in laughter, with most of the class, I was relieved to see that Bella, who was sitting by me, was not laughing, instead talking to Alice. I'm not sure if that was any better. (AN:FYI, Alice is sitting next to Bella who is sitting next to Edward! =D)

John, another football player who was sitting behind me, tapped me on the shoulder.

"You're not gonna let him get away with that are you?"

"No, but revenge is served cold. I need to decide what type of ice cream I want to serve him." I whispered. (I know extremely gay, but it was suppose to be funny… haha?)

"Well, Brady I don't see you with a girl friend at all anymore, I remember when you're girlfriend came to football practice this summer, and broke up with you. In front of the whole team! And you cried, I mean seriously, wow, what a manly man!"I bellowed sarcastically. Brady frowned.

"That's it?" John whispered.

I lifted an eyebrow. Was he serious? "Hell no!" I whispered back. John smiled.

* * *

The next thing I knew it was lunch on the first day of school, I always found that challenging. It was so hard to determine where you wanted to sit for the rest of the year, and if the table was big enough for all of your friends, or if would you have to separate into to sub-cliques. I was still thinking about Bella, maybe if she sat close to my table I could sneak to her table. I started walking to lunch with Jasper. Emmett was behind us with Rosalie. It amused me by how they couldn't get enough of each other, how they were still in their honeymoon stage; after all these years! It amazed me how they could still have that spark in their relationship.

"So did you talk to that new girl yet?" Jasper said, smiling to the right of us.

"Uh, yeah" I said, looking to the right where Jasper was staring. I angled my head to where he was looking and I was almost shocked! He was looking at Alice who was standing by Bella. Who was he looking at; Bella or Alice? I'm not sure if he should like either of them. I pulled him into a small corridor.

"You like Bella, too?" I asked, now extremely infuriated.