Preface

Time & Place: Wintertime, Bella's still a human

"Come on, Bella." Edward coaxed me. Trying to be polite, and not use his vampire strength, he lightly tugged on my arms, which were tightly crossed across my chest.

"Edward. I don't want to go to school."

He rolled his eyes, "Why, again, don't you?"

I sighed. "I want you to change me. Now. High school is tedious and boring and pointless."

"Bella, high school will be even more tedious when you're a vampire, you know. I have been to high school about twenty different times, and taken the same boring classes over and over." He was trying to win. But since he couldn't read my mind, I had a point he couldn't fight.

"And you found it all uninteresting and boring. Up until you met me. Now, you can live forever in happiness. That is, until I die. Because you refuse to change me."

He grimaced, obviously seeing I won this battle. This time.

At least I won. So I willingly let him tug me out of the car, and walk out of the cold and wetness, into the school.

The school day went on. I kept staring at Edward, distracted, while teachers continued to call on me knowing I wasn't paying attention. Thankfully, he would whisper the answers to me, and then chuckle under his breath.

We sat with Alice and Jasper at lunch; Rosalie and Emmett sat elsewhere, mainly because Rosalie didn't like me.

My afternoon classes continued the same way my morning classes did, except for gym. Edward paired up with me, as usual, and played badminton. Well, he played, while I cowered near the back of the court, cringing when the birdie came near me, but every time, Edward would hit it back successfully to the other side at the last second.

He had let it hit me once, to give me a chance, hoping maybe I would be coordinated at this sport. Well, considering I tripped and the racket gave me a bruise on my forehead, he did all the playing for me.

As we walked to his car to go to my house, he did a play-by-play for me of the game. I was watching of course, he knew, but he also knew I didn't understand anything that had happened.

"I thought you couldn't spike in badminton?" I asked as Edward drove, too fast, to my house.

"You can't," he said.

"Then why did Mike spike it near the end of the second game?"

Edward smiled my favorite smile. "He would have won, if he made that last point—I was letting him win. And he wanted to prove to you he was better than me at something. But one of the gym teachers caught that, and explained the rules to him."

"Oh." I smiled. Poor Mike. But what could you do when your boyfriend was a vampire with superior senses? Though Edward tried to hide them, in sports, he let them show a little too much, but not enough for anyone to suspect anything. They just thought he was athletic.

We were in front of my house when Edward turned to me and smiled.

"What?" I asked warily.

"Have you ever gone ice skating? I'll help you." He said the lat part before I could retort with my usual response.

I willingly agreed to go. It would make him happy. He said he had a pond in his vast backyard—and I mean vast—that we could use. So I quickly dashed inside, and found my ice skates in the back of my closet. I guessed he had seen them one night when he slept over.

Renée had had me enroll in ice skating two years ago in this mother-daughter program on one of her new fads. We had only gone to three classes, before she had moved on to something else, but she had still bought me skates.

So Edward drove to his house and flew into his house and was back in seconds with his fancy top-of-the-line skates. I climbed on his back and he ran so fast it was as if we were flying. I assumed he was excited.

Finally, when he slowed down, I could see the pond, surrounded by piles of snow, through the bare trees. A small glint of sun shone through the trees and made Edward's skin glow and sparkle brighter than the snow around us. He helped me tie the confusing laces, and quickly put on his own skates. I stood there, arms flailing, just trying to keep my balance, while he did a few fast laps around the ice. I thought he was fast running—skating even faster, he still looked graceful and fluid.

He slowed down and held me around my waist, while he pulled me along, at human speed. At first, I was scared and wanted to cover my eyes, but then, I smiled because he was holding me, and wouldn't let me fall. He spun us around in intricate circles, but then he stopped in the middle of the pond and he slowly removed his hands.

"I want you to try, Bella." He said before I could protest. Remembering my basic training from the previous years with Renée, I slowly pushed myself forward with one foot, and then the other. Soon, the familiar sliding came back. I fell a few times, but it was when I tried to go faster. So I stayed at my slow pace, while Edward pirouetted around me. He stopped in front of me, then skated backwards to face me, smiling. "See." He said smugly.

Smirking, I figured I would try to show off, to the best of my ability. I had learned one trick in that class with Renée. I don't know what it was called, but I remembered I was the only daughter in the class who could do it, surprisingly. Of course, the other daughters understood and could do the more complicated tricks, but I didn't care, because I could do that one move.

I skated as fast as I could in one direction, past Edward. I could see his face before I flew by, and he was in shock. And not like surprised-shock, but like scared-shock. That threw me off a little, but I was determined.

When my speed was fast enough I launched myself into the air and twisted my body so I could spin. The wind rushing around me was loud, but the sound was comforting, because it meant I was doing it right. My foot connected with the ice, but instead of sliding out of the move, it collapsed at impact, smashing my body, and head, painfully into the hard ice. I was sliding across much too fast and I remember seeing Edwards bronze hair. But that's it.