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Disclaimer: Twilight is owned by Stephenie Meyer.
Chapter 2
Bella recognized most of the faces in her third period calculus class. Fortunately, that snotty Jessica wasn't one of them.
Unfortunately, neither was Edward Cullen.
As the teacher talked about finding inverses, Bella's mind wandered back to biology class. She didn't give one fleeting thought to Jessica or her nasty remark about her jeans. Instead, she thought about her handsome lab partner.
Edward had looked at her as if she was something to eat.
And his nostrils flared. And he growled.
Like an animal.
Bella shook her head. She'd been reading way too many supernatural romances lately. There were no such things as zombies. Or wolves. Or vampires.
Suddenly, she felt someone tap her arm. Bella glanced over her shoulder to find the girl from biology—Jessica's friend—sitting behind her. She was smiling apologetically and holding a folded piece of her paper in the palm of her hand.
A curious Bella took it. She glanced toward the teacher before carefully unfolding the note.
My name is Angela, and I think you look hot in those jeans.
Bella smiled.
After writing 'thanks,' she passed the note back to Angela and forced herself to focus on the teacher. This proved to be impossible, however, because moments later, Angela passed another note.
Sit with me at lunch? Jess won't be there, I promise.
Bella didn't bother writing back. She simply nodded, and she heard Angela's quiet sigh of relief.
"Our lunches aren't terrible," Angela said as the two girls made their way to the back of the cafeteria. "The pizza's pretty good."
"It looks a thousand times better than our lunches in Phoenix," Bella said as they placed their trays on the table. "This is really nice of you, by the way, but I hope you aren't dumping your friend for me."
Angela grinned. "Jess isn't the nicest person in the world."
"No kidding."
"Edward Cullen isn't the nicest guy, either, but he apparently finds you very interesting."
Bella felt her blush creep across her face.
"I don't know about that. He didn't even speak to me."
"He never speaks, unless forced," Angela explained. "Really keeps to himself. He's new, too. He just transferred from some high school in Anchorage. Been here for about three weeks. And . . . don't look now, but he's staring at you."
Bella's back went rigid. "He is?"
Angela nodded. "He's sitting at the round table next to the window."
"By himself?"
"Of course. He's always by himself."
Bella resisted the urge to turn around.
"So if he's really quiet and keeps to himself, how do you know he isn't a nice guy?"
Angela frowned. "Well . . ."
"Has anyone tried talking to him? I mean, maybe he feels isolated and unwelcomed. Kind of like I felt until you slipped me that note in calculus. I'm so glad you did, but it took all morning for anyone to even acknowledge my presence. I didn't expect a parade, but a simple 'Hi, Bella. Welcome to Forks High' would have been nice to hear from someone besides the secretary in the office."
An awkward silence hung in the air, and Bella was sure she'd managed to offend the one person who'd been nice to her.
"Jess tried to speak to him," Angela said softly.
"Because he's cute, right?"
"Yeah, but he wasn't interested. She thinks he's gay."
Bella snorted. "She assumes he's gay because he wasn't interested?"
Angela pointed toward the far wall where Jessica was pressed against some guy wearing a football jersey.
"Jess usually gets anyone she wants. She's . . . pretty popular with the guys."
"I'm sure she is."
More awkward silence, and Bella sighed before taking another bite of her pizza.
"He's just creepy, Bella. Please be careful?"
"I'll be careful."
"Good. He's still staring, by the way."
"Stop looking at him!"
The girls laughed, and any awkwardness evaporated as they finished their lunch.
The cafeteria was crowded and noisy. Normally, the overlapping conversations and inner musings of the teenagers were enough to drive him mad, but today, Edward found the chaos easy to ignore.
His entire focus was on her.
She was sitting with Angela Weber. Now that they were finished talking about him, the pretty girl was now chewing absent-mindedly on a slice of pepperoni pizza.
Absent-mindedly, he assumed, because he couldn't hear her thoughts.
It was the first thing he'd noticed about her. From the moment she'd entered the classroom, he'd struggled to listen.
All he heard was silence.
Unfortunately, Edward had been capable of hearing the thoughts of his surrounding classmates. Through them, he knew the basics. Her name was Isabella Swan, but she preferred to be called Bella. She'd just turned eighteen and had lived with her mom in Arizona since her parents' divorce when she was twelve. The students had assumed she'd be tan and model-thin, and instead, she was pale and curvy.
It was interesting. The guys who laughed with their friends about her round bottom were the same guys who were secretly thinking she was "hot."
He might be frozen at eighteen, but he could live a century and never understand the mind of teenage boys.
He hated that word, by the way. Hot. And it was certainly not the word to describe someone as pretty as Bella.
Edward picked up his fork and stabbed at his food. He had to keep up appearances, after all. Fidget. Blink. Eat. All of the human annoyances that helped him blend into the crowd of high school students. It was imperative he keep a low profile, and he'd come this close to blowing it all on a quick kiss with a pretty girl in biology class. It unnerved him how much he'd wanted to kiss her. That unfortunate display of PDA would have been devastating to his plan.
No distractions.
No remorse.
He couldn't grow attached to these people. Any of them. Not even a beautiful girl with deep brown eyes who smelled like heaven.
If he cared for them, how could he possibly kill them?
