A/N: Hey there. Three things to say:

One, this is a story I picked up from Zukaddy. If you want to read the first five chapters, I suggest you go there. There are links on my profile. This story has spoilers for that one. (Duh!)

Two, I have never tried to write fluff before, so if it totally stinks, I'm sorry.

Three, this story is taking place in Bella's and Angela's and Ashton's) senior year. Victoria was killed with Laurent last year.

Disclaimer: I don't own Angela or Bella or the Cullens or any of those awesome people. They are all owned by the amazing Stephenie Meyer. In fact, I don't even own Ashton, because he belongs to Zukaddy! I am a poor lonely person who owns nothing except the order in which these words were written... :)

Enough of my rambling! If you have read this far, you get a cookie!

"I – I'm sorry." Angela looked abashed by her own blunt question and ducked her head in embarrassment, hiding her face behind her long golden hair.

I forced sound out of my throat, wanting her to look at me again so I could see her eyes. "N-no, that's OK. I'm Ashton, I -" I wanted to say that she was beautiful, that I loved her, even. But she barely even knew me, AND she had a boyfriend. My heart sank through my stomach like a leaden weight, pulling my mood down with it. "I, uh, met you last night," I finished lamely. And I fell in love with you last night, too.

"Oh. Right." She turned away to scribble her name on the top of her homework. Shakily I took my seat and watched her. Even her handwriting was beautiful. The letters were clumsy, but they had a uniformity, a style, and her rows were perfectly straight.

Suddenly I heard my name. "Mr. Walker?"

I jumped. "Yes, sir?" I answered, but I didn't take my eyes away from the wingless angel sitting inches from me.

"Would you care to answer my question?" he said impatiently. No, I really would not. In fact, your question can go shove itself up your nose, Mr. I-don't-remember-or-care-about-your-name. But, coward as I was, that's not what I said.

"Uh, what was it? Sir?" My use of the words 'sir' and 'ma'am' had been beaten into me by my mother. It was a habit I wasn't ready to drop.

"Mr. Walker. Would you look at me and pay attention, please." I tore my eyes away from Angela to look at him. What an ungodly contrast in appearance. He asked his question again, but I didn't hear it and mumbled an automatic response. Instead, I pictured Angela with wings and a halo. She was more beautiful than ever. It seemed natural on her – she looked so right –

The bell rang loudly. I watched as Angela stood and left. I followed her blindly for about thirty seconds before I remembered that I was supposed to be going to my own class, not hers. I couldn't remember anything from my talk with the receptionist this morning, so I had to consult my schedule and map before grudgingly heading in the opposite direction.

SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsS-SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsS-SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsS

I trudged into third period, the last one before lunch, with my thoughts still on Angela. I had absorbed nothing from the previous class. This teacher intercepted me before I chose a seat. She was saying something, and she gestured for me to follow her. I did so numbly and took the seat she led me to.

The class filed in and took seats that were obviously previously assigned. Then she herself walked through the door – the only creature beautiful enough to drive my mental image of her away. I watched her as she took her seat – on the other side of the room. She turned and said something to Bella, sitting next to her, who laughed. My funny Angela...

Suddenly, I gagged on the air. There was a horrible stench on it – a cold, burningly sweet scent, like one would expect from burning an overly sweet plant over icy flames. It stung my nose. I whipped my head around and saw a tiny girl stiffen in the doorway. She was beautiful, in a hard, angular way, with short spiky black hair surrounding her pale face, but she had nothing on Angela. She paused for a moment, then seemed to force herself to walk forward and take a seat in the far corner of the room. She leaned over to the girl next to her, Bella, and whispered something in her ear. Bella glanced up curiously and looked straight at me, sitting ramrod straight in place of her previous slouch.

My hands were shaking and a growl slipped between my teeth. I had been wrong. There was another creature that could stop me picturing Angela. This one. Because even though I had never met one before, my instincts told me everything. This was not a girl. This was a vampire. A vampire who was sitting two seats down from Angela.

I remembered what had happened last time I felt this way: I had phased into a werewolf. I clenched my fists but didn't dare close my eyes to help calm myself down. The vampire could strike at any moment, and I wasn't taking my eyes off of her while Angela was closer to her than I was.

I don't know how I made it through that period. I glared at the tiny lethal beast through the entire class - I didn't even know what subject it was. She didn't look at me, but she was stiff in her seat, obviously as aware of me as I was of her. When the bell finally rang, she hurried fluidly out of the room. Bella stumbled after her, and I quickly drifted closer to Angela in order to protect her if the monster returned.

I trailed her to the lunch room before she noticed me. "Oh – uh, hi. Er – do you want to sit with us today?" she asked timidly. Her voice was beautiful. I nodded silently, and she turned and walked purposefully away. We had only walked ten feet before I realized which table she was heading toward and stopped dead.

There were two of them now, both staring at me with narrowed eyes, their nauseating scent wafting toward me. No way did I want to sit there. But Angela was seating herself beside the female, and I couldn't leave her here. I forced my shuddering body forward and lowered myself slowly beside Angela, but as far from the leeches as I could get.

"Are you okay, Ashton?" Bella asked nervously. She glanced between the vampires and me. I remembered what Jacob had said about her boyfriend. She knew, then. I didn't trust myself to unclench any part of my body including my teeth, to answer her. Letting them just sit there, the female looking frustrated, the male's face unreadable, went against all my instincts. But there was no way I was leaving.

"He's not leaving," the male murmured to Bella, his nose wrinkled. I thought that was obvious. If not for Angela, I would have either attacked or fled long ago. I felt Angela turn around to speak to someone behind us. I nearly threw up as her movement sent more of the scent toward me.

The male raised his eyebrows and glanced intentionally between Angela and myself. I glared at him. I hadn't made it THAT obvious that I was attracted to her, had I? That would put her in danger!

The vampire was moving again, shaking his head. Now I was confused. He smirked and said simply, "I can hear what you're thinking." I felt surprise flit across my face for a moment, but Angela touched my shoulder, stifling all other thought.

"Are you feeling okay?" She looked concerned. "I can show you the way to the nurse's, if you want." Yes! A way to get away from the leeches without leaving her. I snatched it.

"Okay," I forced from between my teeth. I quickly got up and followed her from the cafeteria as fast as possible. As soon as we had passed through the door, I relaxed and breathed in the fresh, non-burning air. We walked in silence for a minute.

"You look better already," she noted.

"Uh, yeah, must've just needed to walk it off," I lied. She was so beautiful, with concern showing in her eyes and her dark blond hair framing her face.

"Do you still want to go to the nurse's?"

"No, that's –"

"Hey, Ang!" I was interrupted. A small Asian boy with glasses was hurrying toward us, looking even shorter from my point of view, and in comparison to Angela, who was very tall as well.

"Oh, hi Ben!" Angela said. "This is Ashton. Ashton, this is Ben, my boyfriend."

The boyfriend. Aha.

A/N: Thanks to my wonderfully splendiferously fantabulous beta Ninja C and to Zukaddy for letting me steal her story! I'll reply to all reviews, if signed, and also look through the stories of the reviewer. :P