Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Twilight characters, they belong to Stephenie Meyer!
Chapter 1
EPOV
"Emmett, grow up!" Edward shouted as Emmett threw yet another volleyball directly at his head during practice. It had become a daily routine for him to find some new way to annoy the crap out of him and of course, because he appeared to be successful, he continued his immature persuit.
"I think I'm fine, don't worry about me Eddie boy," he retorted, hating anytime someone referred to him as a child. Though everyone could see the amusement he gained from messing with his friends,even worse when the torture was put on others.
"Oww!" a new voice shouted. Emmett's aim had no been directed towards Jasper, his next favorite target apart from Edward. "Emmett, knock it off!" He spat as he angrily approached him, ready to fight. To those who did not know the three best friends well enough, this simple action was enough to scare everyone off, unaware of what they were capable of. For those that knew them well, such as Alice Cullen and Rosalie Hale, girlfriends of Jasper Hale and Emmett Cullen respectively, they knew what was happening before their eyes was typical behavior for them. Alice and Rosalie sat in the bleachers and watched as their boyfriends distracted themselves from volleyball practice and approached each other, ready to fight.
"Don't be such a baby Jasper," Emmett scolded. He was simply trying to joke around with his friends, who clearly did not have the same sense of humor as Emmett. There were very few things the boys shared in common when it came what they found amusing...getting hit during practice was not one of them. "It's not like it hurt!" he added.
"Oh really?" Jasper was now standing directly in front of Emmett, though despite how tough he could be, Emmett came closer to towering him as he was over 6 feet tall. "You try having beast like you put his full force behind a ball being thrown directly at your head...it's not a love tap Emmett, want me to show you?"" Jasper challenged Emmett but before the two could duke it out, the couch had blown is whistle and ordered the two to change teams. Their couch would not tolerate such behavior during practice. As Emmett stomped off to the other court, Edward laughed under his breath only to receive a glare from Emmett.
"Watch it Eddie" he said as he stalked passed him.
After practice, Edward, Jasper and Emmett were waiting for Rosalie and Alice by their cars. When they arrived, they stayed where they were, going over the amusements of practice and the plans for the weekend. Edward, however, stared off into the distance as the rest of the students who happened to stay after school left and made their way to their cars. Not everyone had car of course, only seniors were allowed to receive permits to drive their cars. He watched as she walked out of the building with her hoodie pulled up on her head, hiding her face. He noticed her hoodie was too large for her and did understand why she would wear it; he thought of her as strange. Always keeping to herself, didn't talk to many people. Emmett noticed Edwards detachment from the group and glanced to where he was looking.
"Edward, what are staring at?" he asked, unsure of what he was no looking at. He saw her too but was not sure if she was the distraction or not.
"Nothing.." he said, obviously lying.
"You're staring at that Bella girl, aren't you?" The name was enough to get the rest of the groups' attention. Everyone knew who she was...and how unpopular she was.
"Eww don't waste your time Edward, you're so much better than that loser!" Rosalie chimed in.
"Yea Edward, she's not popular like us...she's not even social and she dresses horribly! It's wierd," Alice added, complaining. Alice always stuck her nose into both of her brothers' business. Nothing Edward or Emmett did went by unnoticed by her and most of the time, they took her advice. Alice was the reason Emmett had met Rosalie; she was introduced to her through Jasper who happened to be her twin brother.
"You should listen to Alice," Rosalie confirmed. The group looked down on anyone who didn't fit in with their group. Everyone wanted to be accepted by this group; most people even tried to do favors for them if they ever needed. Rosalie was the one who took guys up on the offer, only to leave them disappointed when they would see her with Emmett.
"I don't know what you two are going on about, no one said anything about having an interest in that Swan girl," Edward dismissed. He honestly never thought twice about Isabella Swan. Despite knowing her their entire lives and having the same classes together since kindergarden, he was puzzled by the behavior she began putting out a few years back. Somewhere along the way she had changed and to this day, he could not understand why she closed herself off from everyone else. Before, from how he remembered her, she was happy. While the rain never pleased her, she still came to school with a smile on her face and greeted everyone. She wasn't popular but she was not considered an outsider either. She was alive. This girl he was seeing before him had changed. Something was different inside of her and it was not just the way she dressed. She looked empty; as though all the life had been taken from her and all that was left was a walking corpse.
"Then why are you staring at her Eddie..?" Emmett teased, taking enjoyment in finding a new way to torture Edward.
"I'm not." He dismissed and looked down at the ground.
"No, you are...new crush of the month?" Emmett continued.
"Of the month? I thought he was with Tanya?" Alice asked as she crossed her arms, confused and clearly annoyed that she wasn't informed.
"You didn't hear?" Emmett laughed and glanced at the little pixie. "She dumped him."
"She did not dump me!" Edward growled.
"Then what was it Edward...?" Alice asked, annoyed.
"We just..." he paused. "went our seperate ways."
"In other words, she dumped you." Rosalie said matter of factly.
"Can you just drop it?" He shouted, loud enough for the few others in the lot to look in his direction. He noticed Bella Swan react to his sudden outburst, differently than most. She hadn't turned her head curiously in the direction of the noise like everyone else. She simply stopped in her tracks for a moment, as though scared instead of surprised. She put her arms to her chest, as though holding herself together. After a moment, she continued walking to her truck, got in and just sat there, stalling her departure.
"You're just upset you'll never find someone like Tanya again, you're hopeless." Rosalie said as she checked her reflection in her hand held mirror she took out of her purse.
"I'm not hopeless Rosalie, I can find someone like that," he said as he snapped his fingers, implying he could have any girl he wanted, no problem. "So I am not upset Tanya and I are over, rest assured."
"You're really that sure Eddie?" Emmett clasped his hands together, an idea developing in his mind. "You really think you can get any girl to go out with you?" Edward stared at him for a moment before he set his jaw, finalizing his thoughts.
"Yes. I am." He said without a doubt.
"How sure are you Edward?" Jasper asked, glancing at Emmett and realizing where he was going with this. "So sure you're willing to bet on it?" Edward raised his eye brow, not sure what he was going to do next.
"Yes, I am that sure."
"Oh boy, here we go" Rosalie rolled her eyes. She knew Emmett and his games.
"Ok, so let's make a bet on that...are you up for it?" Emmett asked.
"What's the bet and what are the terms?" Edward said through his teeth. Emmett smirked in response.
"We pick the girl...no matter who she is and you have to get her to date you and fall in love with you," Emmett said.
"When's the deadline?" Edward asked, obviously this was a bet he did not want to participate in; toying with someone's emotions was something he hated, especially since that was what had just happened to him. However, knowing Jasper and Emmett, he had no choice. Emmett and Jasper both looked at each other before Jasper responded.
"Prom." he said.
"What, am I supposed to turn this girl into prom queen too?" Edward asked sarcastically.
"Why not.." Emmett said.
"It was a joke." Edward responded, clearly frustrated.
"If that's where the road takes you, then by all means do it. But the bet is to make this girl fall in love with you by prom, so you have a month and a half my friend," Emmett said as he stepped closer to Edward. The girls were standing off whispering to themselves; mainly about how stupid the bet idea was while Rosalie thought Edward could not do it. "If she doesn't fall in love with you by prom, I'm going to enjoy driving around your car for the summer Eddie, while you take the bus."
"And if I do get her to fall in love with me?" Edward asked, sure this would be a no brainer. Every girl in school wanted him, all but one. Bella Swan. But they couldn't possibly make her be the object of the bet, could they?
"If you win, I stop messing with you and I'm your slave for the whole summer," Emmett told him. While Edward was so sure he could win, Emmett had his own tricks up his sleeve. The girl he had in mind...would never fall for Edward let alone give him the time of day.
"It's a deal." Edward said, reaching out his hand for Emmett to shake.
"Edward, are you really sure you can win this bet. Be rational here...a month and a half? These things take time..." Alice added, trying to save her brother while she still had the chance.
"Oh I'm sure," and they shook hands, making the deal binding. "So who's the lucky girl?" Emmett smirked. This was the moment he had been waiting for...
"Isabella Swan." He said. Edward's mouth nearly dropped to the floor. His fear had come true. The one girl he knew would be impossible to crack, was the one girl he had to now pretend to show an interest in and get her to fall in love with him. It was an advantage, of course, that they were already lab partners so finding a way to talk to her would be easy. What could go wrong? Oh yea...she absolutely refused to talk to anyone! Lab partners or no, she did anything she possibly could avoid talking to anyone. This was going to be harder than he thought...
The next morning Edward woke up thinking about the bet. How was he going to get Bella to give him the time of day. Any other girl...it would have been easy. A no brainer even. All he needed to do was smile his crooked smile at a girl and it nearly sent them into a frenzy. For the first time, Edward had no strategy. The entire ride to school he thought of ways to get Bella to talk to him. He had always been curious as to what happened to make her the way she was now, but obviously asking her what drove her into what looked like depression was not the way to get on her good graces. He had to be her friend. Show her he was genuinely interested in her life. Who knew if she even had anyone in her life right now...it definitely wouldn't be easy if she was seeing someone. But if she was, she wouldn't be this distant, now would she?
"Edward, are you alright?" Alice asked, concerned for her brother. "You've barely said anything the entire ride to school." He looked at her and gave her a smile, forced of course.
"I'm ok, no worries," he told her as they got out of the car and headed towards the building. As they passed the parked cars, they noticed a girl sitting alone on a bench writing in a journal. It was Bella. All the worries flooded his mind at once. What was he going to do?
"It's about that bet, isn't it?" Alice asked, lowering her voice so that no one would hear. Edward simply nodded his head. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get her to fall in love with you." She smiled and gave him a hug.
"Alice, she doesn't talk to anyone...she literally keeps to herself. How am I supposed to even approach her?" Alice looked surprised. Never once had her brother taken to know such detail about someone he had never really spoken to. Yet here he was, acting as though he had already known this Swan girl for years.
"I'm sure you'll find a way Edward...no girl can resist you," she smiled and noticed Jasper waiting for her by the door. "Don't worry so much!" She added and headed towards where Jasper was. The first class of the day had been English, another class which Edward shared with Bella. She happened to be seated near him as well, though he hadn't thought twice about it until today. He studied her from the corner of his eye as he sat in his seat. Another black hoodie, this one perfectly fitting to her tiny frame. She was hot, as she had rolled up her sleeves to reveal wrist bands on her arms...some sort of new style perhaps? What threw him was the fact that she had not taken it off despite being hot in this room. He tried to get a good look at her face; she was pretty but she was disconnected. No interest or life had been in her eyes; she was merely there to be there. She had faint dark circles under her eyes, signaling difficulty sleeping at night which was odd to him. She used to be so full of life. This girl was not the same Bella he remembered and it bothered him. Made him want to know more as to what caused this, who caused this.
"Mr. Cullen, eyes up front!" the teacher ordered and quickly he obliged, not noticing his side stare at turned into a turning of his head to really get a good look at Bella. He still could see her from the corner of his eyes, she had been looking back but instantly looked away. She had been caught. "So as I was saying, you will be paired up with a fellow classmate and pick from a hat which essay you will be analyzing and presenting to the class. Presentations are to be no less than 5 minutes long and you will draw a card at random with a number indicating the order in which you will present. When I call your name, take a seat next to your partner and we will get started."
"Angela and Ben. Jessica and Mike. Edward and Isabella..." he heard our names get called and he attempted to hide the excitement which overcame him. This project was the perfect way for Edward to get Bella to warm up to him and maybe even, one of these days go out with him. He moved his things over so that Bella could move her desk closer to where Edward was sitting; she started to move her desk before he even had the chance to offer to come to her. Within the next few minutes, their assignment had been drawn along with the number in which they would present. They were going first. Bella seemed awfully uncomfortable with the entire project and it wasn't hard to guess why. She did not like to stand in front of crowds and talk to people she was not comfortable with. If she was comfortable, she would actually be more social.
"So...Bella," Edward began but she made no attempt to turn to look at him as he addressed her. "We have two weeks to complete this assignment, perhaps the best way is for us to read this passage to ourself first, takes notes on what you see and then we can put it all together into one big presentation...what do you think?" He asked, hopeful of at least getting to look into her eyes.
"Ok." Was all she could say. He knew better than to push her further with how closely he had observed her behavior, but he needed more than just an ok. What if her thoughts were better than his? He wanted to know.
"Are you available after school today?We can go grab lunch and discuss how we want to pursue this assignment..." he offered.
"I don't know. Charlie expects me to be home after school," Edward was alittle relieved. Not in her refusal but that she had said more than one word when he thought it would be close to impossible to get even that.
"Charlie?" he asked. He was sure she was addressing her father, Chief Swan though he hadn't expected her to refer to him as Charlie.
"My father, but I could go to the library for a little bit if you wanted to do that." Edward was hopeful once again. For whatever reason, not just because of this assignment, Edward was able to get Bella Swan to actually talk to him. No one, not even teachers, were able to do this.
"That sounds good, I'll meet you in the lot after school. If anything changes, let me know in biology," he said as he began to write something down on a piece of paper. A moment later, he tore it out of his notebook and handed it to Bella and smiled at her as he handed it to her.
"What's this?" she asked, finding the need to look away as she was not used to this nice behavior from Edward. He had always ignored her.
"My number, call me anytime Bella," He smiled and in the moment, the bell rang. "Can I walk you to your next class?" This was definitely not usual behavior for Edward. She didn't know what to say. She simply got up and started walking towards the door for her next class with Edward by her side. Of course, everybody stared at them. Edward noticed Jasper and Emmett by their lockers surpressing laughter as they knew exactly what was going on. When they arrived at her next class, she turned to look at him, her eyes curious.
"Thanks..." she said with uncertainty and turned and headed to her class. Edward was now confident that getting Bella to agree to go out with him would be easier than he ever thought it would be...who knew...
A/N: This is another fanfic I started and decided to post on here but keep in mind..I won't be posting the chatpers as easily...review..review...review...
