A.N: OK, so that was an interesting response. I hope that you enjoy the second chapter.

Thanks brankel1 and Marie One! Appreciated your comments :-)


Chapter 2 - Art Class

Art was my favourite subject. It was just fun - even when we were given long and somewhat tedious projects, I was never bored. If you changed your mind about an idea, it didn't matter; I could just start again at any point if I wanted to.

After homeroom with Rose, I made my way to the Art department across campus. Alice was already there, sat at our desk with her folders laid out on the table. I was glad that our classes hadn't changed for Art - there were only ten of us taking the subject.

'Look what I did!' Alice exclaimed, pushing a folder across the table. Apparently my forgetfulness about her birthday had been forgiven - or maybe she'd just forgotten that she was mad with me.

I caught the folder and flipped it open.

Jasper's face stared up at me from the page. He wore a brooding expression on his face, his eyes were wide but filled with emotion - the drawing was done with sketching pencils, no colour - but it was amazing.

'Wow, Ali!' I exclaimed, looking at it closely. 'When did you do this?'

'Jasper offered to model it for me,' Alice replied enthusiastically. 'He was great.'

'How long did it take?' I asked.

'Five hours. He lost feeling in his legs. It was quite funny,' Alice grinned widely. 'Have you done anything?'

I had, but it wasn't half as good as Alice's.

I was rubbish at portraits - I couldn't get facial features to look right - the nose was too long, or one of the eyes was bigger than the other. I just couldn't do it; I was rubbish at drawing people.

My focus for the summer had been bikes. Motorbikes.

I'd drawn the Harley Davidson Iron 883. It was gorgeous - I'd aspired to owning the thing myself one day, but for now I could just stare at its picture and dream.

I pulled the sketch from my bag and laid it on the table. Alice grabbed it and looked at it carefully, her artist's eye taking in every detail.

'Whoa,' she said finally. That was the thing that I loved about Alice - she didn't just look impressed straight away, without even looking properly. She'd examine my art, without worrying about offending me - and then she'd look impressed, and offer tips.

'I really like it,' she said, grinning. 'Here,' she gestured to the headlamps. 'That's really good. I like the sides, too.'

'Tips?' I asked her. Alice was a better artist than I was - there was no denying it. I wasn't being modest - she was geniunely fabulous.

'Maybe define the headlamps a little more,' Alice said. 'Darker shading at the edges. Could bring it out a bit more.'

I nodded, grinned. 'Ta, Ali.'

Before we could say anymore, the teacher walked in. Mr. Smith was dedicated to art - and he was properly good at it, too. He loved Alice's sketches - he was fascinated by the things that she produced. He was supportive to everybody, offering tips when appropriate and complimenting generously. He was a pretty good teacher.

'Morning, all,' Mr Smith said as he entered the room. The door closed beside him, and he dumped down his own briefcase under his desk. 'Right. Today, I thought we'd try a bit of realism.'


I had History and Maths before break. I was alone in both classes, but they were alright, so I managed. As I left Maths, I realised that I had no idea where I was meeting the others at break, so I hovered awkwardly by the door, and then called Emmett.

'Lee-Lee!' Emmett's voice yelled, crackling from bad signal. 'Hiya! Where are you?'

He always comes across so camp, I thought.

'Outside Maths. Where are you guys?' I replied.

'Library. Meet us there?' he questioned.

'Sure,' I said. 'Later, gator.'

I hung up and made my way back towards the science labs, where the library was located. The system was a bit messed up.

'Leah!' Emmett yelled as I approached the library. The massive buffoon dived onto me from behind, almost pushing us both over onto the tiles. I staggered, but managed to keep upright by clinging onto the edge of the doorframe.

'Emmett!' I yelled. 'Get. Off!'

'Awh,' he pouted but released his grip on my shoulders and dropped to the floor gracefully. 'How has your day been?' he asked, his enthusiasm rivalling Alice's. He grabbed me in a hug and spun me around like a toddler.

'Good, up until now,' I said.

'Leah,' he gasped, dropping to his knees. 'Thy hath wounded my mortal soul.'

He reached up with his hands, making hideous choking sounds. Around us, people were staring at him with confusion and amusement on their faces. I pulled him up by his shirt.

'Come on, stupid,' I said, dragging him into the library.

The rest of the group were already there, waiting. Edward was examining his iPod carefully, glancing up only to arch his eyebrows at us before he returned to his antisocial activity.

Rose and Jasper were arguing about photography - don't ask. It was Jasper's obsession.

'Hi,' I said, sinking down onto one of the beanbags in the corner. Emmett grabbed another beanbag and pulled it up alongside me, sinking down into it.

I looked around, and noticed that Seth hadn't arrived.

'Where's Seth?' I asked.

'He's not coming,' Jasper answered. 'Met some people, apparently.'

'Freshmen?' I asked.

'Something like that,' Jasper replied. 'I don't know, he just texted me,' he held up his iPhone.

Before Jasper could say anymore, Rose was yelling at him again about cameras. I decided not to get involved; Rose was vicious when she was angry.

'P.E. next!' Alice said. Juniors and Seniors doubled up for PE - promoting friendship in all grades, or something like that. I had the class with Alice, Edward and Emmett.

'Yay,' I said sarcastically.

'Aw, don't be like that!' Alice said. 'It'll be fun! Edward enjoys it.'

Edward looked up briefly, scowled and returned his attention to his iPod.

Alice scowled in response, and promptly dived onto Edward. The two wrestled for a moment, before Alice pried the iPod from her brother's grasp, and put it into her bag, stepping away from her sulking brother.

'Damn Alice,' Edward said.

'Don't swear, it's rude,' Alice replied happily.

Edward sat in the corner, pouting quietly. I smirked at him - he glared at me.

For the rest of the break, Emmett and Alice fought, Jasper and Rose fought, and Edward and I sat in silence, observing their violence with amusement.

When the bell finally rang, I decided to intervene in the Rose Vs. Jasper fight - it looked like they were going to start fist fighting proeprly.

'Rose,' I called.

'What?' she snapped. She looked at me, and her gaze softened. 'Sorry,' she said, genuine.

'It's fine,' I replied. 'Just wondered... Do we have biology today?'

'Yeah,' Rose said. 'Why?'

'Oh, just wondered,' I replied airily - but my plan had worked. Jasper had disappeared from the library thanks to my distraction - he knew when he was going to be killed by his sister, apparently. Rose growled in irritation, and frowned at me before stalking off out of the library.

'Wow, you rocked that one!' Emmett said sarcastically.

'Shut up,' I replied sarcastically.


We changed in the girl's locker rooms with the rest of the P.E. class, before we met the guys in the stadium. The clouds were dark up above - it looked a bit threatening.

'Today,' Coach Clapp announced. He was my least favourite person of all time. 'I thought I'd treat you all to an easy lesson. So, I thought, let's get the mile over and done with,' he grinned, as if he'd done us a favour.

'Oh fuck,' I muttered.

'Shh!' Alice hissed, seeing that Coach Clapp was looking at me. Her sharp elbow connect with my ribs - I winced in pain and subsided, disappearing onto the wet grass.

'So,' Coach Clapp said. 'Off you go.'

Emmett grabbed me as if I was weightless and pulled me upright. He was beaming, like Christmas had come early.

'Rain dance?' I begged.

'No way!' Emmett replied. 'Come on.'

He grabbed my arm, forcing me to run along at his pace. Behind us, Edward and Alice settled into pace.

'Why are you making me do this?' I demanded, my voice shaking as I ran.

'Because I love you!' Emmett said dramatically. He looked at me. 'You're going really slowly.'

'That's-because-it-hurts!' I hissed.

Edward and Alice moved closer, all of us running in a line.

'Alice,' I whined. 'Make it stop.'

She was glowing though, the picture of good fitness.

'Leah, you're going puce.'

'Why not just say red?' Emmett demanded.

'Because puce is more artistic!' Alice responded.

'Actually it's more stupid,' Emmett said.

Alice's face turned 'puce' as well.

I moved over as Alice dived onto Emmett, and the two of them staggered off against the wall. Edward and I didn't stop running - he smirked at me.

'Maybe you should go to a gym,' he said.

'Who goes to a gym?' I spat in response.

'I do. And so does Alice, Emmett, Rose, Jasper... All of us, really,' Edward smirked.

'Why did nobody tell me this?' I hissed, panting heavily.

'We thought you knew,' he replied.

'No!' I said. 'I can't do this,' I panted, dropping onto the ground. 'Go on... without me.'

Emmett ran past me. 'Okay.'

I lay there, on the ground, staring up at the ceiling - until a very evil pixie-esque face loomed into view.

'Argh!' I yelled, sitting up and shuffling away from the evil thing that is Alice.

'Get up!' she told me. Edward grabbed one of my arms, and Alice the other. Together, they heaved me up.

'We're not even half way around yet,' Edward told me.

'Shut up,' I said. It was quickly becoming my default response to everything.

'We need to get you gym membership,' Alice told me as we continued running around the track at a very slow pace. A group of seniors passed us, trying to catch up with Emmett - who was half way across the track, finishing his first lap.

'I'm perfectly fit!' I protested.

'Yeah, I can see your fitness in the sound that your lungs are making and the colour of your face,' Edward said, smirking at me.

'It's a healthy glow,' I panted.

Alice and Edward started laughing at me again.

Eventually, I finished the mile. I wasn't last, but I was close to last. Emmett came first - but that was no surprise. Alice and Edward ditched me and finished the mile themselves, before they came back to run with me.

'Leah,' Edward called as I made my way to my next class. He came running up behind me, and slung an arm carelessly around my shoulders.

'Somebody's happy,' I commented. I wasn't - I had a light sheen of sweat on my face, but I looked healthier than I did whilst I was running the mile.

'We've got biology,' Edward said.

'Have we?' I asked. 'But you're in higher biology.'

'Let me see your timetable,' he requested.

I gave him the timetable, and he examined it carefully. We were still walking along with his arm around my shoulders - it was nice. It wasn't romantic or anything; we were just good friends.

'Yep, you're in higher,' he told me.

'How did you know?' I asked.

He grinned. 'I'm magic.'

I shoved him in the side, causing him to stagger a bit and retract his arm from around my shoulders.

'What do you even do in higher biology?' I asked as we walked away. 'Cut up frogs?'

Edward's laughter told me everything that I needed to know.


A.N: Thanks for looking!