Chapter Two.

(Biology Class.)

Stephenie Meyer owns everything. i am not her. i do not own these.


I walked up to our biology table slowly, ready to cut off my oxygen flow if needed, but I knew could handle the monster inside me for at least this one hour. The babble of all the voices in the classroom was doubled thanks to my special hearing. I turned down the volume of all the other voices, letting them become just background music still hoping that I could get into Bella's head. With another try and another failure, I sighed and kept walking. When I got close enough I saw her drawing little cartoons all over her notebook. I pulled the chair back letting it make noise so she would know I was present. She seemed to stiffen in the slightest and gripped her pencil.

"Hello." I said using my reserved voice for humans, not trying to scare them.

She looked up with wide chocolate brown eyes and a slightly stunned expression. I kept my chair as far as possible from the tiny girl, but angled my chair in her direction. I smiled encouragingly at her and analyzed everything she did, needing to get as much as possible because of her blocked off mine.

"My name is Edward Cullen. I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

Her brow furrowed, "H-how do you know my name?"

I laughed; I wondered if there was anyone in this small town who didn't know this brunette's name. "Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for you to arrive.

I expected her to smirk or have a smug expression, but she surprised me by grimacing.

"No, I meant, why did you call me Bella?"

"Do you prefer Isabella?" I was sure she corrected everyone who called her Isabella…

"No, I like Bella." She said "But I think Charlie – I mean my dad – must call me Isabella behind my back – that's what everyone here seems to know me as."

"Oh." Well of course she corrected everyone her name was Bella but I shouldn't have known that until now.

Mr. Banner then started class by instructing us on how to use or labs and explaining our worksheets. This would be easy, I would be able to finish the worksheet in a few minutes and get the information I wanted from Bella.

"Get started." Mr. Banner ordered.

"Ladies first, partner?" I asked being polite.

She looked up staring at me, maybe she didn't know how. Well that wouldn't be a first, humans were so predictable. "Or I could start, if you wish."

"No," she said while turning a delicate pink. "I'll go ahead."

She snapped the first slide into place and adjusted the lens. In less than thirty seconds she confidently said, "Prophase."

"Do you mind if I look?" I went for the slide catching her hand before she went for the next. She jerked her hand away, probably at the iciness of my hands. "I'm sorry." Sorry for almost murdering you last Monday and now I'm sorry for bothering you with my inhuman cold hands.

I examined the slide then saw she was right, "Prophase." I agreed, while writing it on the first line of the worksheet Mr. Banner had given us.

I switched out the first slide for the next; surely her answer had been a guess. All the other humans around us were struggling to get past number one.

I looked into the microscope lens, "Anaphase" I murmured.

"May I?" She asked.

I smirked and pushed the microscope over to her.

She looked into the lens and frowned, obviously disappointed to not be able to prove me wrong, someone with two medical degrees. She held out her hand and asked, "Slide three?"

I dropped the third slide into her hand, not wanting to bother her with my icy touch again.

She popped it into place, looked at the slide for a few seconds and passed me the microscope then said, "Interphase."

I looked at it swiftly, now knowing she wasn't guessing. This girl was smart. Interesting.

We finished long before anyone else had even gotten past number two. I heard the voices of struggling students and cheating thoughts, people were asking others for help and sneaking the books under the tables frantically searching for the answers before Mr. Banner could notice. I stared at Bella who was examining her doodling. Was that why I couldn't hear her? Her intelligence? Hmm, couldn't be that.

She glanced up at me and then blurted out without warning, "Did you get contacts?"

"No." Why would she ask if I got contacts?

"Oh. I thought there was something different about your eyes."

I shrugged and looked away. She noticed my eyes. Last Monday my eyes had been coal black on the fact I hadn't hunted for two weeks, but today they were as light as they could probably go, light honey. Of course my eye color was a vampire fact; the color distinguished our prey, if the eyes were topaz then the vampire hunted animals. If the eyes were burgundy, the vampire hunted people. But each day farther away from the last hunt the vampire's eyes would grow darker until the next hunt returning back to their original color.

But no one ever noticed my eye's, that's why my family never bothered with contacts. No one noticed ever really noticed me or my family, especially not our eyes.

"Oh great, Cullen couldn't even let Bella try I see…" "So, Edward, didn't you think Isabella should get a chance with the microscope?"

"Bella," I corrected. "Actually, she identified three of the five."

Mr. Banner looked skeptical, "yeah right."

"Have you done this lab before?" he asked her.

Bella smiled sheepishly, "Not with onion root."

"Whitefish Blastula?" he asked. "Well at least that explains why she knew the answers so quickly. She probably just memorized the answers."

I glared at Mr. Banner, skeptical of her intelligence. But hadn't I too been skeptical a few minutes ago?

"Yeah." She answered him.

He nodded, "Were you in an advanced placement program in Phoenix?"

"Yes."

"Well" he huffed, "I guess its good you two are lab partners." He walked away. "Two know it alls in one class, as lab partners. Great."

I ignored him and looked over at Bella who had begun doodling again. I remember what she said earlier about me being angry with her, and for some odd reason I didn't want her to think so. I searched for a random topic, and then remembered her conversation with Newton earlier.

"It's too bad about the snow, isn't it?" I asked hoping to get something out of that blocked mind.

"Not really." She answered.

"You don't like the cold." It was obvious, even without having to eavesdropping on her every word and every mind she talked to.

"Or the wet."

"Forks must be a difficult place for you to live."

"You have no idea." She muttered darkly. Obviously she didn't say that because of the weather.

"Why did you come here, then?" If not to send me to hell?

She looked down with a perplexed expression. "It's… complicated."

"I think I can keep up." I said trying to suppress a laugh. How complicated could it be?

She looked up and met my gaze, which then she blurted out, "My mother got remarried."

"That doesn't sound so complex." I disagreed. But I didn't want to be rude so I continued, "When did that happen?"

"Last September." Her voice sounded sad, and I felt bad for her.

"And you don't like him." Typical, trivial, teenager.

"No, Phil is fine. Too young, maybe, but nice enough." She corrected me. Okay, not typical teenager.

"Why didn't you stay with them?" at first I started asking questions to unravel the mystery that was her thoughts, and to convince her I didn't hate her. But now that I had gotten a taste at her thoughts, though probably edited I couldn't help but keep asking questions. Her answers were fascinating.

"Phil travels a lot. He plays ball for a living." She smiled halfheartedly.

"Have I heard of him?" I smiled

"Probably not. He doesn't play well. Strictly minor league. He moves around a lot."

"And your mother sent you here so that she could travel with him." I stated. Obvious answer.

She raised her chin a fraction and replied, "No, she did not send me here. I sent myself."

I felt my eyebrows pull together. "I don't understand." Why would she send herself here when she so obviously hated it here?

She sighed, "She stayed with me at first, but she missed him. It made her unhappy… so I decided it was time to spend some quality time with Charlie." Yes, it was very obvious she hated it here.

"But now you're unhappy."

"And?" she challenged.

Yes Bella Swan was definitely not a typical teenager.

"That doesn't seem fair." I shrugged.

She laughed darkly, and said "Hasn't anyone ever told you? Life isn't fair."

If anything she was preaching to the choir. I looked down at the table, "I believe I have heard that somewhere before." I agreed.

"So that's all" she said.

I looked her over; Bella Swan was quickly becoming one of the most interesting humans I've met. "You put on a good show" I said "But I'd be willing to bet that you're suffering more than you let anyone see."

She made a face and then looked away.

"Am I wrong?" I asked

She didn't say anything.

"I didn't think so." I smirked.

"Why does it matter to you?" she asked clearly irritated but kept her eyes on the board.

"That's a very good question." I muttered. Why did it matter to me? Why did I care so much about this insignificant girl's stories?

She sighed and I looked over at her and saw a cute little scowl on her face that made me laugh, "Am I annoying you?"

She looked over at me and said, "Not exactly. I'm more annoyed with myself. My face is so easy to read – my mother always calls me her open book." She frowned.

"On the contrary, I find you very difficult to read." I said while gazing at her, trying with all my power to penetrate whatever force field was guarding her thoughts from me.

"You must be a good reader then."

"Usually." I smiled widely.

Mr. Banner then got everyone's attention, and started asking people for answers to the work sheet. I went over the whole conversation in my head. Her answers amazed me. If I wanted to here her thoughts before I wanted to hear them even more now. I was also amazed at how her fascinating responses almost distracted me from the spasm of pain throbbing in my throat, even though I had hunted just last night. I gripped the edge of my chair. And cut off my air supply like last Monday. As soon as the bell rang I rose just as quickly as the week before and got out into the fresh air as soon as possible.

"Edward." I heard Alice's soprano voice call my name from not to far from behind me. "You did well. Im proud of you."

I sighed, of course Alice would have been watching. That's probably why she was giggling earlier this morning.