Danger Assessment
Edward was maybe a self-loathing piece of a nut-job but he was also a man of pride. After almost a week in Denali, he decided not to let a measly human girl disrupt his family. After all, what he had heard from her indicated that she was no different than the other girls in Forks. In fact, she was probably kind of dumb because the amount of thoughts he heard from her was considerably smaller than usual. So he returned to Forks and attempted to rearrange his schedule but it proved impossible. He ended up in a classroom with her again.
When Bella saw Edward back at their shared desk, she asked herself, "What a hell is his game?" She sat down next to him cautiously.
Edward steeled himself and focused on her mind. He heard, "It seems that he's back." Then he figured that he should say at least something and muttered, "Hello."
Bella looked at him and replied, "Well, hello," and emitted, "It seems that his tummy-ache or whatever it was last week is better."
Edward blinked. A tummy-ache? He knew from his siblings and from thoughts of Bella's schoolmates that she had not discussed his behaviour with anybody. He was surprised that she had not needed to find a common ground with other girls and to gossip about him to make herself feel better but explaining it with a stomach-ache seemed quite far-fetched to him.
Mr. Banner informed the class that they were going to dissect frogs that day. All the pairs went forward to take a frog and tools.
"I'll get a frog," said Bella
"OK," replied Edward, trying not to use too much air, and went to get a scalpel, a pair of tweezers, a pad and some pins.
"Do you want me to cut?" asked Bella when they were back at their desk and stroked the frog on its head.
Edward just shook his head and took the knife. However, he didn't seem to be in rush to take the frog from Bella.
"Very well then, I'll prepare... her for you," proposed Bella and pressed the frog to the pad.
"OK," repeated Edward. He felt silly for being so limited in how much he was able to say. He also noted that the girl couldn't be entirely stupid if she was able to recognize a male frog from a female one.
Bella took a pin and decided to mess with Edward a little. She created another fake mind trail but weaker and somewhat unclear. Then she leaned closer and nailed one of the frog's limbs to the pad. At the same time, she emitted a high-pitched screech in the secondary trail.
Edward started when he heard that. He looked around and saw that it couldn't be anybody else around. It couldn't come from Bella either because he heard her thoughts at the same time. Bella pinned the remaining limbs and accompanied it with a mental scream of pain each time. It was rather difficult and she had a hard time concentrating on the real world but she managed it.
When she pushed the pad with the frog to Edward, he was somewhat disconcerted. He did not cut immediately so Bella urged him, "Well? Get on with it." She leaned a bit closer (not too close though).
Edward reluctantly cut at the belly of the frog and immediately received loud screams of pain. His hand jerked back. He shook his head, something like that had never happened to him.
Bella reached out to take the knife from Edward and said, "It's all right, I can do it." Then she emitted through her fake mind, "Oh, he doesn't want to hurt the frog. How sweet and cute!" Of course, that was far away from what she really thought.
Edward's eyes bulged when he heard that. Bella quickly killed the frog so there were no more screams.
When the class ended, Mike Newton and one of the girls who had been rejected by Edward in the past strode to their desk.
"So, didn't feel like gutting the frog?" mumbled Mike. He wanted to sneer but his voice was uncertain.
Bella seized her chance and defended Edward, "Hey! Valuing life isn't something to be ashamed of!"
Alice told Edward's siblings what happened. They welcomed him with smirks and sniggers when he met them. Edward glared at them but to no avail.
"So, our ickle brother can't bring himself to gut a frog?" provoked him Emmett.
"And needs a girl to defend him against evil bullies?" added Jasper, who behaved almost out of his character.
Edward tried to hush them and explain about the strange readings from the animal but his brothers didn't take him seriously. After decades of boredom, even a little thing like that was able to amuse them greatly.
If Bella was a normal girl, she would have a hard time keeping a straight face. What she did was childish but it was also funny and it gave her some interesting information about Edward and potentially made a dent in his defences. However, it didn't make her any closer to figuring him out. He clearly wanted her blood. Did it mean that they weren't as harmless as Billy's grandfather had thought they had been? And why hadn't he attacked yet in such a case? And why the hell did he care about a stupid frog? She considered going to La Push and telling her friends all about it but decided to leave it for next day.
When Edward returned home, he sought his father out and told him what had happened. Carlisle was intrigued and they discussed thinking and feeling capabilities of frogs for a while. Edward hesitatingly told him about what he had heard from Bella. His tone suggested how ludicrous he found the notion. Esme was passing Carlisle's study at the moment and overheard it. She rushed in, hugged Edward from behind and insisted, "You are sweet and cute. Never doubt that!"
The school was uneventful next day besides some difficulties in classes caused by gaps in Bella's knowledge. Edward and his siblings were avoiding and ignoring her. Only Emmett sent a big smile at her during lunch. Bella went to La Push right after school.
Billy and others listened to her observations. Somebody voiced his opinion that maybe it was all a waste of time but others hushed him. Afterwards, Sam and Emily took Bella to a small shed at the edge of the woods. It fit Bella's specifications well enough so she agreed to make it her laboratory. It still needed some small repairs, improvements and alterations though.
Bella started to work on the shed while Sam and Emily went back to their house. In a while, they returned with a pickup loaded with a few lockers, shelves, tables and such. They even brought some broken and discarded chemistry equipment from the reservation school and their old fridge (which was no longer functional). Bella's kit, books and other things were stored at Billy's house for the time being, Bella decided to move them to the shed next time.
When they unloaded everything, Sam told her, "So, we can finish our conversation now."
"OK. What should I work on as first?"
"Well, I have a suspicion that Jared and maybe Paul might be affected by the presence of the Cullens in the future. Unless we manage to drive them away, it's only a matter of time. I would like you to provide them with something to calm them down when the time comes. Not to mention that I myself am quite new to this and wouldn't turn it down."
"Many of your forefathers went through this and did just fine," remarked Bella.
"Yes but that was when this area was still largely unpopulated. Today, you can't run in any direction without encountering somebody. A hiker for example. Not to mention that most of the tribe is oblivious to what is happening and thanks to you, we need to keep a far lower profile than ever before."
Bella nodded and replied, "Very well, I'm going to need to do some research. What time frame are we talking about in Jared's and Paul's case?"
"I don't know, it's unpredictable. Maybe months before anything starts?"
"And when it does? Is it over in hours, days?"
"For me, it was several days. But there should be signs before it starts."
"Good," replied Bella. Then she turned at Emily and continued, "I guess you could use some kind of salve?"
Emily touched her scars and answered, "Yes. It can wait however."
"Well, it's not my area of expertise but I'll see what can be done."
Sam smiled and then spoke to Bella again, "We would be very grateful. One one last thing. When we spoke the last time, I wanted to know if you could make more like this one." He passed Bella a double-barrelled hunting shotgun.
"Yes, that shouldn't be too difficult," answered Bella after she examined the weapon.
"But it would have to be reliable and not to fall apart after some time."
"With the right basic materials, it wouldn't. As for the ammunition, I would need real gun-powder."
"Very well, that can be bought."
Bella gave him the gun back and stated, "However, I don't think this would be of much use."
Sam nodded and replied, "Of course, this gun is meant just for recreational hunting. But we could obtain some real guns meant for combat."
Bella shook her head and said, "I don't believe that would work either but better than nothing, I guess."
"OK, we'll try to buy something simple for starters and see how are you going to be able to work with it."
The time when Charlie was supposed to come home was getting near so Bella decided to go back when they finished their discussion. She wasn't finished with dinner yet when Charlie returned from work and so she couldn't avoid him when he decided to hang around. He asked about her day at school and about her visit at the reservation. Bella figured that those were safe topics and gave him rich answers to distract him from other possible questions.
Next day, Edward was missing again. He decided to take a day off and asked Carlisle to excuse him from school. With him absent, Bella settled for assessing of his so called siblings. Rosalie was the most simple: she obviously disliked Bella. Alice seemed to be confused for some reason. Jasper was cautious, suspicious and probably having a hard time resisting the temptation of all the human blood around him. The most positive attitude towards her had Emmett probably. He seemed to be amused by the whole thing. Bella thought that it would be a good idea to talk to him someday.
The following day (Thursday), Edward was back. They met in the classroom several minutes before the class began.
"Are you all right? You were missing again," asked Bella.
"Yes, I'm OK. Thanks," answered Edward. His control over his thirst was improving.
"I'm sorry about the whole thing with the frog," said Bella after a moment.
"I beg your pardon?" asked Edward bewilderedly.
"I made you look stupid, that wasn't my intention," explained Bella. Then she fake-thought, "Why does he think that I would think less of him? He didn't want to dissect a frog. That shows that he has feelings." However, what she really thought was, "This is all so pathetic. I can't believe I'm actually playing this stupid game. Frogs? His feelings? This is probably the most pitiful vampire ever. Maybe he isn't entirely stable considering how young he is. I hope this helps me to asses if he represents a danger at least."
The teacher arrived and they remained silent for most of the time. Sometime during the class, Bella realized that Edward had a strange way of breathing. She put that thought on her fake-trail. Edward heard her and started to move his shoulders more. However, it only confirmed Bella's suspicion that he wasn't breathing at all.
When the class ended, she told him, "You know, I find you really difficult to figure out. It's frustrating, I'm usually good at reading people." She meant what she said this time. She even considered taking a shortcut and doing it the easy way. However, that would be like admitting a defeat and she didn't want to risk an exposure.
Edward just stared after her as she was leaving. He was starting to doubt his standing opinion about Bella (that she was all too easy to read). Maybe it was going to be difficult to figure her out as well.
After school, Bella stopped at Blacks' house to pick up her remaining things. She met Jacob there and he offered to help. They drove to Bella's shed together and unloaded the equipment, books and the rest of the stuff. They spent some time setting the interior up and sorting everything to its proper place.
Afterwards, Bella started to search through her books and notes. Jacob helped her to take notes and to keep things organized. After some time, Bella could tell that she probably had got all the information she needed for both projects with her. She actually worked on something similar to the first one before and the second one was so common that it didn't require any special literature. Bella considered that as fortunate since she wanted to keep a low profile and going to places where she could get more books would compromise that.
While they were reading, Bella thought about available resources. She had some basic supplies and a limited amount of money. Again, she wanted to avoid places where she could buy more. Then an idea came to her and she picked another book from a shelf.
"Jacob, do you recognize any of these plants?" asked Bella and showed him some illustrations in the book.
"They look familiar but I'm not sure," answered Jacob.
"Could you pick some guys and look around for some of them?"
"Sure," agreed Jacob and wanted to take the book.
Bella stopped him, "No way you are going to run around with it in the woods. Let's make notes."
They redrew some of the selected plants in a notebook and Bella dictated Jacob pointers about where to find them.
"Can you make it with just the plants we find around?" asked Jacob them.
"I'm not sure. It doesn't need to be strong. We might have to travel elsewhere for some of those plants though."
Afterwards, Bella packed one of the books and some of her notes in her bag. She wanted to go through them at Charlie's. When they were leaving, Jacob warned her that a vagrant might try to get inside so Bella improved security of the shed.
Next day, Bella decided to change her fake-thoughts a little. She hoped that maybe a different mind-profile would enable her to get into Edward's head (metaphorically speaking). It would mean to stop being inconspicuous but she had to do it to dissolve the unknowns around Edward and his family. She didn't like unknowns.
So, during their shared class, Bella emitted thoughts like "What should I cook for Charlie today? Poor guy wasn't taking good care of himself in the past years, I need to make him to get his cholesterol level checked," or "Why does Edward always seem so depressed? He always looks so lonely when he sits with his family. And why does he never eats anything? That can't be healthy for him," and such.
Edward was a bit confused by the change. He was used to hear from Bella only scarcely and it was usually only a copy of her words or of those around her. When the bell rang, he had to admit that he became a tiny bit curious about his lab partner and considered finding more about her later to prove that there was nothing to be curious about.
Students began to trickle out of the room and Edward started to pack his things. He was doing so at human pace, because Bella remained as well. She got an idea and positioned herself in such a way, that her hands were from all sides covered by her bag, body, desk and backrest of her chair. There was the springy sound again and this time, Edward heard it. Bella quickly made a movement and shoved her hand in her bag just in time to prevent Edward from seeing what she held.
When she was having dinner with Charlie that evening, she addressed him, "Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Leah Clearwater invited me to a sleepover. It's this weekend, from Saturday to Sunday."
"A sleepover?" asked Charlie in surprise. He was quite befuddled, Bella didn't strike him as a sleepover person.
"Uhm-hm. Watching a movie, making Seth uncomfortable and such."
"That's quite a girl-stuff," commented Charlie. He figured Bella as very ungirlish in the past two weeks.
"Well, it's an opportunity to spend time with friends."
"Sue and Harry don't mind?"
"No, Leah cleared it with them."
Bella went upstairs after the dinner. Instead of homework, she read the book she brought from the reservation.
Next day, she made a big lunch and left for La Push. Once there, she immediately sought Sam and gave him a roll of banknotes. She told him what she had done at school and what her plan was.
"I need to confront him out in the open and away from any witnesses," concluded Bella.
"Is it wise?" asked Sam. "Maybe it would be better to let it go if he hasn't attacked you so far."
Emily was listening to them. She worried about the outcome of Bella's plan and was afraid that something might happen to Sam.
"And what if he's waiting for a right moment to strike? If he goes hunting this weekend, I'll know and offer him that opportunity."
"Unless he changes his shoes," added Sam.
Afterwards, she approached Jake and his friends. They presented her with a collection of herbs. Bella threw most of them away but a few of them were the right ones. The most important plant, Arnica montana, was actually grown directly in La Push as a sort of private joke. She instructed them to look for more and joined in the search this time.
When the evening came, the whole company (including the elders) assembled around a fire. Ephraim Black had suspected that Edward Cullen could read minds and Bella confirmed it for them. She wasn't very optimistic about their ability to learn to close their minds completely but since Edward's gift wasn't very forceful, she hoped that some of them would be able to get in his range without giving away any sensitive information. And of course, it would also save the pack many embarrassing moments.
After they parted and Bella got several hours of sleep, she returned to work. She made a first draft of the formula and realized that she was still lacking part of the ingredients. She decided to travel to places where she could get the rest later. She would have to plan it well enough to make it all in one trip because it was a good idea to keep the frequency of her travels at minimum.
When Bella left the shed she went to Emily's where she found Sam. He agreed to tell her about shape-shifting. As he was explaining, Bella realized that Sam's experiences won't be of much use to her. For Quileutes, shape-shifting was driven by instinct and came naturally to them. Not to mention that it was in their genes because they were hybrids (as she believed) to some extent.
While she was considering whether to go to Billy and ask him to tell her more about their legends, a piece of sea-glass she carried with her started to glow slightly. It meant that Edward was moving, fast.
"What shall we do?" asked Sam.
"Let's give him a while. When I confront him, get near the area, downwind. Stay several miles away. Do not get involved unless I call you."
Bella tracked Edward's movement for five minutes.
"OK, let's do it. He is about ten miles northward from their house. I think he is changing his direction toward the coast," Bella informed Sam. Both of them got moving.
Edward was at the time running through the woods, searching for a pray. Carlisle was nearby. Edward had asked to accompany him, he wanted to discuss his self control in the presence of his singer during last week.
As he was trying to catch a scent of a suitable animal, he suddenly smelled Bella. He lost control of his body for a moment. Fortunately, he managed to stop himself ten meters from her. She stood there, all tensed up and prepared for action. When he didn't continue towards her, she relaxed a little.
"Hi there. Hiking?" she called.
Edward didn't respond. He wanted to run away from her but the pull toward her blood was too strong. Bella made a few strides to him and Edward took one step back. Bella observed his struggle with interest. She realized that he wanted her blood but was restraining himself. His motives however, were unclear to her.
"Is something wrong? You don't look well," she added and took another step forward.
Carlisle arrived at that moment and quickly assessed the scene. "Edward," he addressed his son, trying to get his attention. Bella tensed again and awaited Carlisle's move. Carlisle approached Edward and put a hand on his back. Edward managed to tear his focus away from Bella and looked at him.
"Go on without me Edward, I'll catch up with you," said Carlisle.
Edward just nodded and then ran along. Bella eyed Carlisle for a moment. He seemed at ease, without any sign of blood-lust. That didn't mean that he wasn't dangerous but Bella relaxed a little as well.
"Good morning, Dr. Cullen. Are you hiking?" she repeated her previous question.
"Just a short walk around with some of my family, miss Swan."
"You know me? We've never met," asked Bella.
"And how do you know me in that case?" retorted Carlisle.
"It's not hard to guess."
"Same here."
Bella had him just where she wanted and asked, "So, Edward told you about me and you assumed who I was based on his reaction? By the way, what was all that about? Is something about me bothering him?"
Carlisle couldn't come up with a good way to tell her that it was none of her business so he just ignored her question and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Hiking," answered Bella and hoped that they weren't going to backtrack her path.
"You shouldn't wander in the woods alone, there are wild animals around."
"I know, I'm being careful. Well, I'll go back to my car now."
"Aren't you lost? We are only ten miles from our house. We can lead you there and the give you a lift back to you car."
That was inconvenient to Bella. She wondered what would Sam do if he didn't hear from her soon. "No, I don't want to inconvenience you. I'll just head back to La Push, I've left the car there."
"Very well. It was nice to meet you," said Carlisle after a brief hesitation.
"It was nice to meet you too."
When Bella left, Carlisle went after Edward. He took out his cellphone while he jogged and called Alice. He told her about encountering Bella and asked her to keep an eye on her in case she ran in danger. Alice wasn't very attuned to Bella but she agreed. Carlisle then caught up with Edward. He was leaning against a tree and breathing heavily.
"You did well," he commended him.
"There were no witnesses. For a moment, I wanted to kill her," replied Edward.
"But you didn't."
"What the hell was she doing there anyway? I go hunting and of all the people I have to meet her!"
"She claimed she was hiking."
"Do you believe her?"
"Well, it's a strange coincidence but not impossible. Let's head back to the house, Alice might be able to tell us more."
In the meantime, Bella found Sam and told him what happened. Then they returned to La Push.
Carlisle and Edward returned to the house. Alice approached them.
"Did you saw anything?" asked Carlisle.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't find her," she responded.
"How is that possible?" asked Edward.
"I guess I'm not attuned to her. I'll keep trying."
Bella was at the time discussing the encounter with Edward and Carlisle with Quileutes. Billy made sure to scold her for her recklessness. Bella then decided to go home in case Carlisle called Charlie.
When Bella left La Push, Alice saw her and notified her family. They were discussing the events at the time. Jasper was the only one who remarked that she got back to La Push quite quickly. Being suspicious of everything, he wanted to go to the site of encounter and backtrack Bella's route. However, Alice told him that it was about to rain soon. Not knowing that even a very brief inspection would reveal interesting things, he stayed home.
Bella arrived home where Charlie welcomed her by questions about the sleepover. She decided to spend the rest of the day with him.
"So, what are we going to do today?" she asked.
Charlie was confused for a moment before he realized that she was offering an opportunity for some daughter-father bonding. He started to think about their options and realized that there wasn't much they could do. He thought about teaching her fishing or going to diner but he didn't think that those things would be appealing to Bella.
"Well, we could... I don't know, watch TV?" he proposed finally.
Bella rolled her eyes but she asked nevertheless, "Is something interesting in there?"
"Well, there is no game till the evening. There is this sitcom however..." Bella shook her head. "...a talk-show." continued Charlie and Bella disagreed again.
Finally, Charlie said, "In about ten minutes, there will be a documentary. Something about the Second World War."
That piqued Bella's interest. "Documentary. Do you think it describes the events accurately?" she asked.
"Well, that's the point, I think."
"OK, that sounds good."
Bella made a popcorn and they sat on a sofa. She had some rudimentary knowledge about the war and the document wasn't relying on pre-requisite knowledge much so she was able to watch without asking Charlie too many suspicious questions. The documentary was about development of aeroplanes during the war.
"Well, that was quite good actually," said Bella when it was over.
"You liked it?" asked Charlie in confusion. Bella always found a way to surprise him.
"Yes, we need to do it again sometime. Could you tell me when there is something similar again?"
"Yeah, sure."
Alice, who was still keeping an eye on Bella, watched the whole thing and Edward saw her vision. He definitely wouldn't guess from Bella's thoughts that she was interested in warfare and his curiosity about her was raised by yet another tiny bit. Jasper, who was always interested in history of wars, grunted something about Bella not being so bad after all.
His opinion was about to be changed soon however. Next day on lunch, Edward sat with his family at their table and prepared to pretend to eat. Suddenly, he heard that Bella who was sitting not too far away thought his name. He looked at her and listened to her thoughts.
"He never eats or drinks anything," she thought in her dummy mind.
Edward looked at his tray and its contents. There was some over-greased pizza and a bottle of soda. He started to cut his pizza in pieces. Bella kept looking at him.
"She noticed that I don't actually eat," he whispered to his siblings.
Edward quickly found out that he didn't fool Bella. He heard her think, "Yep, just like when I was little and the food at school wasn't good. Dissect the food to make it look like I ate at least something and then dump it. But it's strange that he is doing it every day. Why does he bother to buy anything at all?"
Edward tried to be more convincing but to no avail. His siblings were watching him with interest. As Bella's thoughts became more and more suspecting, Edward realized that he had no other choice. While trying to mask his revulsion, he brought the pizza to his mouth and took a bite. Emmett's eyes were bright with amusement. Bella was satisfied and turned to her own meal.
"This is strange," said Jasper.
Edward read his mind and found out that Jasper felt Bella's mood. Then he read Bella's mind again.
"What?" asked Rosalie when she saw Edward's confusion.
"She is highly amused," answered Jasper and began to grin, being affected himself.
"Are you sure? It doesn't seem like that to me," said Edward. Bella was just eating, her face dispassionate. Her thoughts didn't betray anything either.
"I'm telling you, she is laughing inside," insisted Jasper.
From them all, only Emmett found the whole thing amusing. Jasper and Edward were suspicious, Rosalie was irritated. Alice couldn't form an opinion about Bella. The girl was an anomaly in her visions, the future had a strange way of behaving around her sometimes.
Edward went to the restroom to choke the pizza out. He arrived to the class he shared with Bella in the last minute. They sat through the class and Edward made sure to behave extra grumpy during it. When the class finished and Edward stood up to leave, Bella blocked his path.
"You know Edward, I'm not stupid. You have some kind of problem with me," she said.
Edward considered pushing past her but he didn't want to risk getting that close to her.
Bella fake-thought then, "Yes, I know you have something against me. You look at me all the time like you wanted to bite through my artery."
Edward blinked in surprise, shocked by the accuracy of her idea. "Get out of my way," he gritted through his teeth.
Bella remained in place and continued, "If you hate me so much, then why didn't you take advantage of the situation yesterday? You could have gotten rid of me or something." She expanded that "something" by fake-thinking, "You could have yelled at me or confronted me or whatever." What Bella really wanted to know was why he restrained himself from draining her blood.
Edward heard her fake thoughts but he reacted to her words, "What do you mean, get rid of you? Am I some kind of a gangster?"
Bella looked in his eyes and stated, "I know it's well in you capability." To make it sound less suspicious, she fake-thought, "Anything is possible for those with money."
Edward didn't want to take another breath in her presence in order to get air to respond so he just shook his head in disbelief and leapt over their desk to avoid Bella.
After school, Bella contemplated going to her lab in La Push - she wanted to start on a new project. However, she didn't want Charlie to think that she was spending too much time there and so she decided to stick to her established schedule of two shorter visits during week and one big during weekend. Hence, she only made a quick trip to La Push, grabbed the book she needed and returned home before Charlie did.
Next morning welcomed her to the new day by sun-rays streaming into her room. She opened the window and took a deep breath, it was a sunny day. She always found such days refreshing, both in Forks and back at home.
"Well, no Cullens today," she thought and went to the bathroom.
At school, she found out that she had forgotten her homework for one of the classes but she managed to do it in the break before the class. Later, she managed to sneak in the chemistry laboratory and stole a small amount of chemicals. She took samples only from larger bottles and packages so no one would find out.
After school, she drove to a drug-store and bought some cleaning solutions. Then she went to apothecary and bought some benzine. She drove straight to the reservation after that. Jake was already home from school as well and Bella found him playing in his garage.
"Hi, are you up to some more collecting?" she asked him.
Jake was agreeable and even got some of his friends to join them. An old Quileute from the reservation was also breeding the right kind of beetles and gave Bella some.
When they were returning to Bella's shed, Jake asked, "You know, I couldn't not to notice that these are completely different ingredients."
"Indeed," replied Bella.
"Are you brewing something new?"
Bella repeated her previous answer.
"Care to enlighten me? I've been running around the woods for almost three hours because of this after all."
"It's a sort of perfume. It will cover my scent," answered Bella.
"You need it because of them?" continued the always inquisitive Jacob.
"Yes. I think my smell makes Edward more thirsty for some reason. This will confirm it."
Jacob stopped and asked, "Wait a minute. So all of this is for some bloodsuckers's comfort?"
"No, we are doing this because I'm curious."
"Couldn't you just collect some of Sam's sweat?"
"No, they know your scent and I don't want them to know that the pack is back. Now shut up."
Bella started to work once they got to her lab. Jacob returned home and relayed Bella's request to Billy. She wanted him to call Charlie and give him some excuse why she wasn't home yet.
It was dark already when Bella stoppered a bottle of a nearly finished product. It still had to mature during the night but she was confident that it would be ready for usage come morning.
When Bella awoke next morning, she opened the bottle and sniffed at its contents. Apparently satisfied, she poured a portion of the liquid in a spray and applied some on herself before going to school.
The first Cullen she met that day was Alice. They passed each other in a hall after their second classes. Alice caught her scent and frowned in confusion. She thought, "People who sell such perfumes should be hanged." and walked onward.
Then there was lunch. Edward looked thoughtful and looked in Bella's direction once in a while. He probably saw Bella's choice of scent in Alice's mind.
And finally, their shared class came and they once again sat together at their desk. Edward was hesitant to breathe at first but once Bella gently nudged him with her thoughts, he did. The effluvial input he received was unlike anything he expected. He could still hear the enticing sound of Bella's thumping heart but the mouthwatering aroma of her blood was significantly reduced. He realized that it was covered with the new perfume that Alice smelled earlier.
Edward started to think, what kind of "perfume" was capable of such a thing? It was quite a repellent odour, he had no idea what kind of a company would produce and even manage to sell such a thing. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he forgot that he was looking at Bella for the whole time. After a while she turned her head and looked back at him.
After another while, Edward blinked a few times and apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare."
"That's all right. Do I smell better now?" replied Bella with a smile.
"Yes, I mean no... I mean yes, for me I guess... I mean, your perfume seems peculiar," stuttered Edward.
"I know. It neutralizes my scent but I guess it doesn't smell very nice."
"What...?" wanted to ask Edward but the teacher approached them at that moment.
Bella remained focussed on the class for the remainder of their time there. When the bell rang, Edward accosted Bella once again. Mike Newton frowned when he saw that they were remaining behind again.
"You said that it neutralizes your scent. How did you mean that?" inquired Edward.
"Well, I thought that maybe my smell irritates you so I thought about covering it."
"What led you to believe that?" asked Edward. He was shocked a little that Bella guessed that his feelings were based on her scent.
"I've read an article about it on this... this Ethernet thingy."
"You mean Internet?"
"Yes, that. Well, and it said that some people can get very irritated from the smell of some other people. Like bullies and geeks for example."
"And you thought that this was the case?"
"You were quite obvious. After I read that article, I realized that I must smell foul to you and that it makes you angry."
"Well, not exactly. I mean, you didn't smell bad," quickly corrected Edward. He suddenly considered it blasphemous to describe such a sweet smell as foul.
"So, how did it smell to you?" asked Bella and raised an eyebrow.
Edward hesitated and then carefully answered, "Well, it was quite distracting."
Bella laughed and said, "Well, I'm flattered."
Edward regretted then what he said and opened his mouth to say something.
"Don't worry, I won't tell a living soul that you've said that," assured him Bella.
Edward closed his mouth again.
"Though I may make an exception with any of your siblings who would find this amusing," added Bella.
Edward cringed at that thought. Then he asked, "And the perfume? Where did you buy it?"
"Oh, I made it myself. There was a recipe under that article."
"Don't you mind that it smells rather... odd? Jessica is bound to gossip about it if she finds out."
"Eh, what do I care what the other girls think?" said Bella and backed her words with her fake-thoughts. Mentally, she also added, "And at least it might keep boys away from me."
Edward heard that and driven by a sudden inspiration, he said, "Well, it has a perk. It might keep the likes of Mike Newton from bothering you." It was the first time he used his ability in such a way.
Bella thought, "Unbelievable. Did he just use his ability to appear more charismatic to somebody else?". She said, "Well, when you put it that way, I guess it does. Being icy to them would work only for a limited time."
Bella collected her things and started to walk away.
"Bella? Why did you went through all that trouble?" called Edward after her.
Bella turned back and replied, "I don't know. To see you perplexed?"