Chapter Two

=It's Been a Long Summer=

"Bella! Bella! Over here! Quick!"

I heard Alice calling my name from the moment I stepped into the crowded gym. I wasn't surprised though. Alice had softball all summer and rarely had time to send me a short text message, let alone spend some time with me. It had always been this way though. She had softball, I had nothing.

I quickly made my way over to Alice knowing that if we didn't get seated, and quick, all the seats in the bleachers would be gone and we would be left to stand or sit on the floor that got cleaned maybe once a year.

"Alice, you have a really loud mouth for someone who is so small," I complained as I plopped down onto the bench with a loud huff.

"Yeah, Yeah, you'll live! So, how was summer? What did you do? Where did you go? Did you meet anyone new? Hav-"

"Alice! Slow down, Hun. You know most of those answers. They are the same every year."

It's true. Alice asked me the same fifty questions every first day back to school. They were all the same this year to, except for one.

"Man, Bells, you got to get a life, Babe! Join a sport; join a club; join- Wait! Most? As in one of them changed? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!"

I glared at her for a moment before responding. "Alice, you know not to call me babe. Ever."

"Aw, come on, Ba- Bells!"

I didn't answer, but instead, I kept my glare fixed on her eyes.

"Fine, whatever, Bella. Anyway, quite dodging my question and answer it. What changed? Did you finally take a trip? You know you really need to get out of this town for a while. You've lived in this town your whole life and never seen another state that doesn't border Washington."

She had a point. I hadn't ever traveled. My family just couldn't afford it. We were just barely making ends meet as it was. So trips were simply out of the question. Unless you count my annual trip too Seattle with my grandparents an actual 'trip'.

"That's not the point, Alice. I love Forks. You know that. But no. I did not take a trip. Otherwise I wouldn't be this happy." I mumbled that last part under my breath.

"What was that last part? Something about being happy? So does that mean you won't be such a grouch anymore? Wait… Happy, no trip, no clubs… You met someone. Didn't you? Did you meet someone, Isabella?"

"Alice, shut up! You-,"

I didn't even get the sentence out before she was squealing and bouncing in her seat. If she was allowed to, she would have been up and jumping everywhere; no doubt dragging me along with her.

"Yay! You finally met someone! What's his name? What does he look like? Have you met him in person yet? How old is he? Are you two dating yet? Have you-"

"Whoa, there, Alice. Slow down girl! Yes I met someone, but he's taken. Believe me, he is taken."

It was true. Many times, Edward would break off from out original topic and end up talking about Jessica for hours. About how he wanted to marry her, what their kid's names where going to be, how pretty she was. Everything there is too talk about a person, he talked about that. All in about a month's time. The boy could go on for days. But I didn't mind. Talking to him was nice. Calming in a way.

"Okay, then just the basics. What's his name?"

Right as the words came out of Alice's mouth, the bell rung and we were directed to our first hour class.

"I'll tell everyone at lunch. Me, You, Angela , Erika, Jojo, and Ashley are still sitting together right?"

"Course! Later, Bells! Good luck!" she yelled as she ran out of the gym.

On my way too first hour, I spotted a familiar head of short blonde hair.

"Jasper! Wait up!" I called, praying he could hear me over all the movement and loud squeals of the girls finding their 'BFF's'. Girls like that just needed a dose of reality. Sorry, Hun, you ain't Barbie!

Jasper turned and looked around for a moment before he saw me trying to weave my way through the crowd. When he finally seen me, he moved over to the wall too wait for me.

When I finally reached him, he said "Damn girl, for someone so skinny and short, you'd think you could hustle your ass a little more! Chop, chop!" in true Jasper character. Always the annoying older brother.

In true sister style, I reached on arm up as if to drape it across his shoulders but instead brought him down into a head lock.

" Ha! Teaches you to mess with me! When will you learn that I can still kick your ass?" I taunted as I rubbed my knuckles into the top of his head.

"Okay! Okay! Mercy! Uncle! I give!" He begged.

I released him from the head lock, laughing the whole time. When he was finally standing at full height, which is only about an inch on my five foot one stature, he ran his hand over his hair too smooth it down into its usual position and then lifted his head too give me a long glare.

"How ya doin' brother of mine?" I said with a sarcastic smile.

"You're evil. Evil I tell you! You're so lucky I love your tiny ass." He said as if he was making a point.

"Hey, get to class you two! Bell is about to ring any minute!" The principal all but screamed at us.

"That guy's such a douche. Anyway, later Shorty! Go learn some stuff!" Jasper said as he took off down the hall.

Laughing and shaking my head, I made my way down the hall too my class. As I walked into the class, I noticed that I was almost the very last kid into class. With a sigh, I took a seat at the only open table left.

"At least I don't have a table partner." I thought to myself with a smug smile.

The next couple hours of the day went by without incidence. Lunch was good, though I never got around too telling the table about the "person I met". That's the thing about middle school. Seven different hours of classes and that alone leaves you with very little time to have any social time. Needless to say, Alice wasn't happy.

As I left lunch, I looked down at my schedule to see what class I had next. Pre-Algebra with Hutter. Great. Mrs. Hutter number two, as the school called her, was known to be one of the meanest and strictest teachers in the building. There were actually two Mrs. Hutters. They were twins. One is the drama teacher, the other is my math teacher. And even worse, I knew absolutely no one in that class. This should be fun.

As I got to the door of the class I sucked in a deep breath, lowered my eyes to the floor and walked into class. Kid's were already walking around, talking too all their friends they hadn't seen in three months. As I looked up at the white bored, I noticed that it had the words 'Take a Seat Anywhere and Get out Paper' scrawled in big sloppy letters. After I did as instructed, I finally lifted my head to check out some of the kids I would have to endure for the next nine months.

Hmmm…. Jock, Jock, Ass, Stoner, Bitch…. Is there anyone in here that is worth talking too?

Looking around a little more, I noticed movement in the corner behind me that I didn't even realize was there.

That's what you get for being so damn shy and not holding your head up!

Shut up inner voice. As I focused a little more, I made out three distinct figures of boys my age. Two of the boys were squatted down on either side of a boy in the middle sitting in the desk he had pulled back into the corner.

Great, trouble makers. Probably smoking some pot or something.

As the bell finally rung, the boys went back to the seats they had originally taken. The middle boy, the one sitting in the desk, pulled his desk up to the empty space next too mine. I turned my head just a little to see if I recognized the boy. He had long dark hair, chocolate eyes, and a dark completion. He was wearing a Nirvana t-shirt and dark jeans that fitted him well.

Hmmm… So his music taste isn't terrible. Good to know.

For the rest of class, we took notes and watched a few youtube videos on how to do certain math problems the correct way. But what got me wasn't the fact that we had homework the very first night, it was the fact that I couldn't resist the urge to sneak a peek at the dark boy next to me.

Don't look at him, Bella. He's just another boy. You don't need or want a boy friend now. Focus on school. That's all that matters tell your twenty-five.

Yeah, I hadn't ever had a boy friend. But that was because I hadn't ever been liked. Between the end of last year and the end of summer, I had changed drastically. I had begun caring about the way I looked for once. Before, I had always worn big clothes that were too big for me. They also covered my weight issue. I wasn't fat, but I wasn't the smallest thing either.

The class ended without problems, much to my relief.

Two hours later, I was finally done with my first day of my eighth grade year. And for once, the thing on my mind wasn't Edward. It was the dark boy from my math class.

Stepping onto the bus, I whipped out my phone and flipped it open to my favorite number, hoping too calm my nerves.

Oh, this year is gonna suck. Majorly. –B

I hear ya. What happened to make your day so bad?- E

Oh, you don't even wanna know.- B

Yes I do! I want to help! Come on, B, tell me. You KNOW you can trust me.- E

Fine… its long so give me a chance to get this all typed out.- B

No problem! Thanks B!-E

Edward always had this way of making me spill my guts. And that's what I did. I put everything out there for him. The only thing I didn't tell him was about the 'Dark One' as I decided to call him. For some reason, I didn't think he would want to hear about that.

Once I was home, I lied to my parents, telling them I had a lot of homework, and rushed into my room to change into a pair of old sweats and a jacket. Edward and I continued to text each other for the rest of the night, just like every other day. We text till school starts and then pick up our conversation after school. It was so easy to talk to him.

By the time I fell asleep, it was about 11:35pm and I was over and hour late for bed. Which already told me tomorrow was going to be hell.

For the first time in a long time, I fell asleep and had a good dream. A dream about 'The Dark One'.

What's going on with me?

Hey guys! So I don't think anyone has read this quite yet! That's fine. Totally understand. But I had a ton of free time today so I spent my day typing this for you guys! Hope you enjoy it! Mind you, it hasn't been checked by anyone so it may be jumpy or not make since. If so, let me know and I'll take it down and fix my mistakes. Thanks guys!

~Jackee!