Stephanie Meyer owns all of the characters, I'm just borrowing them for awhile.

Chapter 2

I had biology next and I wasn't sure I knew the way yet. I started to follow the crowd out of the cafeteria when Mike caught up with me.

"Bella, you have biology now right?" asked Mike "I can show you the way if you want."

"Thanks Mike," I replied, as he led me to class.

After a couple of minutes of pushing and making our way through the crowd we finally got to the right room.

I had to talk to Mr. Banner to get my attendance form signed off. Slightly grudgingly it seemed, Mike walked over to his usual table.

After giving me his tick of approval, Mr. Banner told me to head to the only empty spot left. Which just happened to be right next to Edward Cullen.

While I was walking over to my seat, Edward looked up and met my eyes. At once I noticed that they where very dark, possibly even black. He gave a small frown as I walked over and I blushed as I remembered that he had caught me staring at him and his family.

As I sat down I noticed that Edward's body language was confusing and slightly conflicting. Although he turned towards me when I got close, he also seemed to lean away. I decided I was probably reading too much into it and settled down for the lesson. I turned to introduce myself to him but he beat me to it.

"Hello, I'm Edward Cullen. You must be Isabella Swan. Or do you prefer Bella?"

I was taken aback by his voice. It was far softer than I would have expected for some reason, and yet it still matched him very well. I gathered my wits enough to respond.

"Hi. Yes, I am. And I definitely prefer Bella." It was a point I usually had to point out to others. It was a nice change for someone to guess so easily: he had me feeling at ease pretty quickly.

"Bella it is." He replied with a smile that belonged on the silver screen.

"I'm surprised you came to class actually, you're sister didn't look very well when you left the cafeteria."

I regretted my words as soon as they left my mouth. I blushed as Edward looked up with a surprised frown on his face.

"I don't mean… I wasn't like… spying on you," I stuttered, blushing more and more as I kept talking, probably sounding like the biggest idiot alive. "I just… I noticed that you left in a hurry, helping your sister out is all." I finished lamely.

"Um, yes... Well, Alice, she… She sometimes gets headaches. Migraines really." He replied, his frown deepening as he turned toward the board at the front.

I turned back towards the front of the class as well, horrified that I had revealed my interest in his family to him like that. Edward was silent next to me, probably feeling incredibly awkward and quite annoyed.

By the time Mr. Banner had started us on our practical, Edward seemed to have lost the frown and was being perfectly polite again. I decided it couldn't hurt to ask the one other question I wanted an answer to.

"Um, Edward? Is she all right? Alice that is?" I asked, stumbling over my words like I do my feet.

"What?" Out of everything I had said this seemed to catch him off guard the most. He considered my question quite intensely for a few seconds. More, I thought, than was necessary for what could have been a simple blow-off answer. Maybe I hadn't ruined my chance to get to know this interesting person and his family after all, I thought.

"Hmm, well, she should be. It's hard to tell. But she has always been very strong."

His choice of words surprised me, it was quite strange the way he said it. Like it was a mental thing: if she tried hard enough she wouldn't get migraines anymore. It was almost like he was talking about something else. Or maybe someone else. I don't know, I'm sure he knew what he was talking about. His father's a doctor after all.

The longer the lesson went on the more I felt that Edward was surprised that I was still talking to him. Like people usually stayed away from him, which surprised me because he was so polite and he seemed very friendly. But on the other hand it wasn't that strange. He was good looking, to a point of perfection really. And, from the looks of the way he dressed, his family was very well off financially. He would be pretty intimidating to many people I guessed: I knew I was nervous at first. But his calm exterior and gentle voice put me at ease so that I was blurting out every thought that came into my head. Like mentioning how I had been snooping at him and his family, I thought with a mental sigh.

When the end of class came Mike came straight over to my table.

"We've got gym together now," he said, totally ignoring Edward. "I'll show you the way."

"Oh, yeah, okay. Thanks." I was slightly disappointed that I had to leave Edward for gym, not half because I was almost guaranteed to make a fool out of myself in my next class. In fact, there was no almost about it. I sighed. Why did gym have to be compulsory in Forks? "I guess we had better go. Goodbye Edward."

"Goodbye Bella," he replied in his soft voice. "Until next time."

I gathered my books and let Mike practically drag me from the room. I was in no hurry to get to the gym so I took my time putting my books away. Mike decided to take the time to inquire about my conversation with Edward.

"So, you're Cullen's partner now, huh?" he said the name with a slight sneer. "That guy's always given me the creeps to be honest."

"Why? He seems nice enough to me." I replied, closing my locker and following Mike to the gym.

"I dunno, it's just a feeling I guess. Something off about him. All of them really. The Cullens."

"Have you ever talked to him? To any of them? Have you even tried to get to know him or any the others?" I was getting a bit annoyed at this conversation now.

"No, I've never wanted to." Mike replied defensively, stopping as we came to the gym.

"Well, maybe you should give them a chance before you start judging them." My tone had calmed down by now, but inside I was still annoyed. I turned to enter the gym with Mike following behind me.

Gym was terrible. We were playing volleyball and I spiked the ball straight into another girls face. Even though I apologised profusely and told the coach that making me play was a safety hazard for myself and others, but he told me to keep on going and that I would get used to it eventually. Because it was my first class Coach Clapp didn't make me put on the uniform which was one positive at least, although he did find one for me to wear from then on.

Finally the last bell rang and class was dismissed. I returned to my locker to grab my bag before heading to the parking lot.

As I walked out into the slight drizzle that was omnipresent in Forks, I noticed that Edward and the rest of the Cullens, except for Alice, where standing around the new Volvo I had noticed earlier. I wasn't surprised that it belonged to them. I waved to Edward as I walked to my truck. He raised his hand in acknowledgement but a frown returned to his face. His massive brother, Emmett, punched him in the shoulder when he saw that he was waving at me, grinning like a maniac. But the other two were frowning like Edward, especially Rosalie whose face was more like a scowl than a frown. I blushed, letting my hair fall around my face and quickly walked the rest of the way to my truck.

I started up the truck, jumping at the roar of the engine when it finally caught. A few people where glancing towards it, probably because of the amount of noise it was making. Or maybe they were glancing at me because I was the new girl. I hoped it was the noise. I pulled out of the lot and headed home.

When I got back to Charlie's, I still had a couple of hours until Charlie came home. I started chopping a few vegetables and getting some mince together for a quick pasta sauce. I let that cook while I tried to get some homework out of the way.

I booted up the computer and signed on to check my email. I sighed as about five or six emails from my mum started downloading into my inbox. I read through them quickly. They progressively got shorter, sounding more and more anxious, even though they had been sent within a ten hour period. You would think I had been out of touch for months let alone days. I quickly replied, telling her about my day and the people. The usual. Trying to ease her mind that I was fitting in at the new school. That I had some friends, although it was only the first day.

Finally finishing with that I hit send and started on the English project which was writing a short essay about Shakespeare. I decided upon using one of my previous essays that had impressed some of my teachers in phoenix. I tried to rationalise that it's not really cheating if it's my own work. And anyway, I'd still have to edit it a bit for it to fit the context.

After messing around with that for awhile I heard Charlie coming in downstairs.

"Bells? You around?" he called up from downstairs.

"Yeah dad, just doing finishing off some homework." I replied, coming down stairs to meet him. He was taking off his jacket and putting away his gun as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Ah, hey Bells. What's cooking? It smells fantastic."

"Oh, just some pasta sauce. It should probably be ready now. I'll just chuck some pasta on and it'll be ready in about ten minutes."

"Excellent, I'll just, ah… clean up a bit and be down in a second." he called out as he headed upstairs towards the bathroom.

"Ah, cheers Bells. I could get used to this."

We'd finished dinner and I was just clearing away the plates. Charlie was as comfortable to eat in silence as I was so neither of us had really talked yet.

"Yeah, well, you eat way to much take out as it is." I replied, only half joking.

"So," said Charlie, leaning back in his chair. "How was your first day?"

"Yeah, um… pretty good you know, met some nice people." I reeled off the few names I could remember from the group I had spent lunch with. Charlie commented on each with what he new about them and their families.

"So that's it then? Just a normal day at a new school? I told you it wouldn't be that bad." He said it with a smile in his voice, genuinely happy that I seemed to be fitting in.

"Yeah. Oh, I almost forgot," I added, turning back to Charlie. "I'm lab partners with Edward Cullen in biology. He seems quite nice. Although they don't seem to fit in very well at school."

"One of Dr. Cullen's kids?"

"Yeah, do you know Dr. Cullen?" I questioned, interested at the tone of Charlie's voice.

"Mmm, he came to Forks two years ago because his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's a great man. Fantastic surgeon. We're incredibly lucky to have him. He could probably work anywhere he wanted to and earn far more than he is here. I haven't had any trouble from his kids either: they're very mature for their age. The way some people can gossip just because they're newcomers…" he finished with a huff.

It was one of the longest speeches I'd heard from Charlie, and he also seemed quite passionate about it. As if it wasn't the first time it had come up. I let it go and stacked the dishes up to dry.

"Ah well, try and be nice to the Cullen kids. They seem pretty nice and it can't hurt to have a few more friends, ay?"

"Right dad, I was planning on trying to get to know them a bit better." I said, as I headed up to bed. "Well, goodnight then."

"Goodnight Bells, thanks again for dinner. Oh, I probably won't be here in the morning either. I usually have to leave pretty early."

"Okay, goodnight Ch- dad."

I went up to bed and got in straight away. It took me awhile to go to sleep, but the last thing I remember before sleep took me was they way Alice had looked at me before Edward had practically dragged her out of the cafeteria.

I know, I know. No Alice! I'm disappointed too. But I decided from the start that I wasn't going to have Alice in biology with Bella. I didn't want to just swap Alice for Edward. Don't worry, Alice will come back into the story, and sooner rather than later. I hope you enjoyed it all the same. And I'm sorry if it was fairly similar at the end, it probably will be for a while.

Also, I'll try to update about once a week. But it could get fairly irregular soon when uni starts back up. Cheers for the great feedback so far. Much appreciated. Criticism is always welcome too.

-TST