Hello, and welcome to chapter two, beta-ed by the wonderful AnotherStupidLamb. Thank you to my one reviewer who wasn't my beta as well. Reviews are fantastic, and much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I'm not Stephanie Meyer.

Chapter Two: The Project

The next few weeks passed without incident as my life became routine and I settled back into a normal groove. My school days were filled with small talk at lunch and boredom in the classroom. My evenings were spent caring for my mother and making sure the house stayed in decent shape.

Well, maybe things weren't completely normal. I was obsessive over the guy I had bumped into, Will Cullen as I later found out. Sure, he was beautiful, but he was also different. I was just having a hard time figuring out how. The way he had looked at me with those golden eyes, his face twisted into a mask of torment. And how he just spun around and left so quickly I wasn't even sure it had happened. It was all I could think about at night. Not a crush, I kept telling myself. It was a strange curiosity, like I needed to know about him just because he was so mysterious. Did no one else realize that he was so different?

At lunch, I tried to fit in, ask questions as nonchalantly as possible. I learned what little people actually knew about them, the Cullens'. Dr. Cullen and his wife Esme, both in their twenties, had adopted Will, Bella, Edward, Alice and Jasper, all in their teens. They were all as impossibly beautiful as Will; pale, angular and graceful. They were all just as subtly different from everybody else. The way they looked at each other, barely talked, never ate, chuckled quietly at odd moments, it was all off.

Edward and Bella, Jasper and Alice, they were couples, earning them small town whispers and gossip at school. People seemed to clear away from them in the hallways, almost subconsciously. Some part of me believed that Will was purposefully avoiding me, that I had done him some wrong. That was why he seemed to sit farthest away from me in all of my classes. I sighed. Maybe my sleep loss was making me paranoid.

"Lilah? What do you say?"

I was sitting at lunch, thinking when Megan, one of my new lunch buddies, interrupted me with a hopeful question.

"What?"

"Port Angeles on Saturday? Dinner, movie, shopping? Please?" Megan, tall, red headed and perky, looked at me eagerly and I cringed. I hated to let her down. She'd been extremely nice to me ever since I arrived, but Port Angeles was more than an hours' drive away, and I didn't like to leave my mother for more than a few hours at a time.

I lied, something I was a natural at by now.

"Sorry. I still haven't finished unpacking all our stuff, maybe some other time? We could...," I stumbled trying to find an activity we could do in Forks "Take a walk, go hiking?" I finished lamely. She looked at me with a blank face.

"If you want, Josh and Kim and I could come over and help. I'm sure they'd be fine with that. Port Angeles will still be there next weekend."

I nearly panicked.

"No, no, no, no. I don't want to ruin your weekend. And all the good movies will be out of theaters if you wait. Don't worry about me. I've got enough stuff to keep me busy." I said, my words coming out in a rush. Megan looked at me strangely, and then smiled.

"Well, if you insist. The weekend after though? Mr. Stevenson is assigning us that project, and he usually lets us choose partners. We could work on it for a few hours at my place then watch a movie or something?" She smiled.

"That sounds great." I agreed.

It did sound nice, having an excuse to get out of the house for a few hours. My mother had been okay for a few days when we arrived, comforted by the rain. But now she was just as bad as in New Mexico, her mood swings and tantrums returned, her movements barely manageable with her medication. I reminded myself then that I couldn't get too close to Megan, as nice as she may be. I didn't want to be the freak with a mom who couldn't even say hi when her kid brought friends over. I didn't want anyone to treat me differently, to look at me and whisper every time I walked through a hall or into Thriftway. Forks was a small town and news spread like wildfire. I didn't have the luxury of letting anyone in. I didn't know how to let anyone in.

The bell rang for English, and I hurried to put my stuff together. My classes here weren't challenging for me, I'd been in almost all AP at home, occupying myself with work in lieu of a social life. The project that Megan had been talking about would be easy as well, just a paper analyzing the themes in Romeo and Juliet, to be done with a partner and a soundtrack for each scene.

As I took my seat, I looked around to find that Will was sitting, painfully beautiful as always, at the opposite corner of the room from me, in a class where seating assignments were a personal choice. I looked away, shaking my head. I really needed to get some sleep. Mr. Stevenson, our enthusiastic teacher, greeted us.

"As you all have been anticipating for three long weeks, it is time for us to start work on your projects! And, as this book is about breaking social constrictions and societal feuds for a greater purpose, I have taken the time to pair you up myself! Life must sometimes mimic art!"

"Yeah, that turned out great for Romeo and Juliet." I mumbled under my breath.

The class moaned. Megan, who I sat next to, rolled her eyes, and looked at me apologetically.

"Well, you can still come over and watch a movie, unless, by some freak accident we're put together." She smiled. The list of partners was posted on the wall, and the students scrambled to look.

Megan returned with a smile on her face. "I have Mark." The guy she admired from a far.

I smiled at her and looked at the list myself. My face turned pale.

Cullen and Adams, The paper read.

I turned around to look at him. He was staring at me, eyes smoldering. I walked back to my desk quickly, ignoring the burning look from him in the back of my head.

"What? Who is it?"

"William Cullen."

"Well, he's easy on the eyes at least. He doesn't talk much to anyone, though. I'm not sure how well he works with people. He's a little... strange. I could call you half way through, if you need an out. Pretend it's an emergency?" Megan offered.

I smiled at her and laughed, my stomach still lurching.

Maybe this was my chance to finally get him out of my head, resolve my inexplicable intrigue and move on.

"I don't have a cell. I'll be fine. We'll catch that movie at your place another time?"

She nodded at me, but her facial expression changed suddenly, and she hurried off with a quick "See you later."

I spun around. There he was, golden eyes staring like he saw everything I'd been thinking about him for the past two weeks, his words spoken as if he'd never seen me before.

"I'm Will Cullen. We're paired together for the Romeo and Juliet project." He said; his voice still stiff. I noticed he barely breathed and his posture was tense.

"Yeah, I'm Lilah." I fumbled to extend my hand, but stopped when he made no such motion himself.

"We should probably work on it soon. When are you available?" His voice was inflexible, but held some hint of another emotion.

I decided that for continuity's sake, I could not be available Saturday.

"Uh… Sunday, around one at the library? Is that okay?" I asked, determined to be polite. He looked like he wanted to dash out the door, like he was fighting himself just to stay here and finish our conversation. But he seemed determined to stare into my eyes so intensely, so fervently, that I wished I could look away, stop him from delving too deep.

He gave me a smirk and said, still rigid, "Sunday. Library. I'll be there at one."

He turned so fast I hardly knew what had happened.

I took a few deep breaths to steady myself, my head swimming as I breathed in the air from the space he had just occupied.

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