Chapter Two

I pulled into the school parking lot feeling the impending boredom of the day ahead. School was mind-numbingly monotonous for the most part, and I had a feeling that today would not be an exception...I couldn't have been more wrong.

I stepped out of the car and dashed around to open Bella's door and help her out. I didn't like to risk the possibility of her tripping and falling. Grace certainly wasn't one of her finer attributes.

Taking her hand in mine, we turned towards the school together.

"Did you hear about Edward Cullen?" The sound of my name snapped my attention towards a group of students standing huddled together. It was a group of girls standing in a circle, giggling. I didn't know them but I assumed they were juniors.

"Yeah! I mean you can tell just by looking at him! I mean he is HOT!" The giggling chorus continued as I tried to work out what they were talking about. Clearly I had missed something, but the minds of these girls were so jumbled that I couldn't even begin to make sense of what they were talking about.

"What is it, Edward?" Bella asked while looking at me curiously.

I shook my head, "nothing." I pulled her along into the school, wondering what that was all about.

All morning I was receiving the same odd looks. Every girl I passed in the hallway seemed to be looking at me. But it wasn't at my face. Their eyes always seemed focused quite low on my body. The first few times I ignored it. Though whenever they caught me looking at them, they quickly reverted their eyes and giggled. By the fourth time, I had had enough and I tried to see what the culprit was thinking.

I wonder if Jessica was telling the truth. She let out a mental groan of frustration. It's a shame his jeans are too baggy to tell.

Something inside my brain suddenly clicked. Jessica. The sleepover. Another image from her thoughts entered my mind at that moment and I cringed. Why was she thinking about me? Why me?! I was going to KILL Jessica Stanley. The image wouldn't go away. I had the sudden urge to bang my head repeatedly on the brick wall.

The rumors continued throughout the day. And I soon learnt that the only way to escape the stares was to walk to class with my bag held in front of me, making it awkward to walk but more comfortable than having girls staring at me like that all day.

By the time lunchtime came, even Bella knew what they were about, and every time someone asked her a question about it, which unfortunately happened quite often, or she heard others talking about it, she would turn bright red and bury her head in my shoulder, refusing to meet my gaze.

We sat at our regular lunch table trying to avoid the gaping students around us. When Alice came traipsing into the cafeteria with a huge smile on her face, I knew it didn't spell out good news and it was time for revenge.

"Bella, love, can you stay here with Alice for a while? I have to go and do something but I'll be back before the next class starts, alright?" I whispered quietly into her ear. She looked at me quizzically but nodded her head. I gave her a quick peck on the forehead before hurrying out of the cafeteria, avoiding Alice and her thoughts, and heading straight for the woods near the school.

I took off running for Bella's house, my sinister plan already formulated in my mind, prepared to get revenge on two of the most infuriating things I had encountered within a day.

Finding the leaves was easy. Still in that same place where they had made my life a living hell the night before. I pushed them into a large pile, chuckling evilly to myself as I gathered as many as possible, before I picked them up. I was pleased to find that I could carry them all at once and wouldn't need to make a return trip. I could only imagine how ridiculous I looked cradling a bunch of leaves in my arms. And I didn't want to think about how dirty these leaves would be making me. They were a lot more trouble than they were worth. But their day of reckoning was at hand.
Once I was satisfied that I had picked up every single leaf, I proceeded to run in the direction of Jessica's house. Arriving there I realized that I didn't actually know which one was her room. Thankfully her particular scent was easy enough to detect, it lead me to a room on the top floor around the back of the house.

I dashed up the wall to the window and carefully coaxed the window open with one hand while trying to hold the leaves and the windowsill to stop myself from falling, with the other hand. I chanted every prayer I had ever heard asking that I don't fall backwards off the sill. It would only be a repeat of the night before. Falling into leaves. The thought alone was enough to make me shudder again.

Finally it was open and I snuck silently into the room. Glancing around I decided it best to scatter them throughout the entire room, and that's exactly what I did. Her closet, her bed, her desk; everything was smothered in leaves and mud. I grinned, pleased with my effort. Admiring my work I caught sight of the clock hanging on the wall. Damn! Lunch break was almost over! I jumped out the window and ran back to school.
The rest of the day passed in the same fashion as the start had. I blocked the minds of those around me by imagining the look on Jessica's face when she returned home to find the leaves littered in her room. My stupid grin had caused Bella to ask several times where I had gone at lunch, but I didn't think she would approve, so I didn't tell her.

Just when I thought the day couldn't get any worse, we walked into biology to learn that we were starting our new topic: Reproduction. I sat at my desk, my head buried in my hands as the students around me watched a video. Not surprisingly, the girls were overjoyed at this turn of events and insisted on thinking about me in the context of the video. More than once I hit my head on the desk. Only after I'd done it three times did Bella point out that there was a dent beginning to form, so I had to stop. I sat wishing for the day to be over and to be able to return to the peace and quiet of my home.

When the final bell rang I almost found myself running for my car, racing to get away from the incessant, immature thoughts of every teenage girl in the school.
Bella, Alice and I all piled into the Volvo and started the drive home.

"Bella should come to our house today, Edward. Esme was suggesting that we have a barbecue. Well, not we obviously, but have one for Bella." Alice suggested from the back seat.

I could see Bella about to object to the idea but it honestly seemed like a good one to me. Of course, I didn't have the good sense to notice the peculiarity of Alice blocking her thoughts from me at that moment.