AN: Whatever you do, don't freak out about Alice being with Mike. You'll see what I'm doing with this.

I do not own anything Twilight related blah, blah, blah

A Different Side

It was just what could be expected out of the first day of a new semester. Everyone had some new classes, some people were switching out of classes that they didn't like and into different ones, the same as usual. I didn't expect anything different. It was Forks, after all. Nothing was really interesting.

Except for the fact that I had lost a bet and had to audition for the school musical now.

My brother's girlfriend, Rosalie, had bet me that by the end of the semester, my girlfriend, Jessica, would find out that I was cheating on her. Of course right after I agreed, Lauren Mallory (the girl that I was sleeping with behind Jessica's back) decided that she liked this kid named Tyler that I wasn't that fond of. She figured that as long as things were over with us it was okay to tell Jessica. I guess you could tell how that ended.

When I entered my third period AP music theory class, I was surprised to see Bella Swan there with her best friend, Alice Brandon. I didn't know that either of them were that into music. But then again, one could never know that much about Bella's likes or dislikes. Bella's mind was a secret to nearly everyone.

"We had plans, remember? You kept Jasper and I waiting for half an hour before we decided to go home," I heard Bella complaining. Bella never complained much unless it was about men, so I was rather curious over why Bella--Bella of all people--was whining. Bella was the one who told everyone else to grow up and quiet complaining.

"You guys could have seen the movie without me," Alice replied.

"Are you trying to set Jasper and I up?" Bella wondered. She had this thing against relationships. Nothing that she expected everyone else to believe in, but a strong hatred of the word "couple" when it implied her. From what I could tell, she didn't believe that any love was good enough to last. Not like she'd really had a relationship to begin with. I'd only seen her date one guy while at Forks, and they were only together until after prom that year. I didn't seem to end that well. But that sappy "I'll never love again" was definitely not the reason behind the madness of Bella's theories.

"No, I guess I didn't think how awkward that would have been with just the two of you," Alice pondered. "Okay, look. I said I was sorry. Mike wanted to talk about things less public." Alice was currently dating my best friend at the time, Mike Newton, which didn't make Bella that happy. She didn't stop Alice from doing anything; heaven knows it's her mistake if she makes it. But Mike and Bella didn't exactly get along that well.

"Like what?" Bella questioned. Alice looked around cautiously, which made me laugh. Like you could keep a secret in Forks. She slowly raised her left had to reveal a wimpy diamond ring. "Good, good god, Alice, please tell me that's the promise ring and not the real one," Bella wished in disgust.

"It's the real one!" Alice announced excitedly.

"Okay, I love you to death, Alice, but honestly! You're a senior in high school. You're only eighteen. Oh, and did I forget to mention the fact that you've only been dating the guy for all of two months. Come on, Alice, I know you're smarter than that!"

Bella and Alice had been best friends since Alice moved here, and as much as she must have been used to all of the negative talk about love coming from her unromantic best friend, hearing those words must have hurt her. But Alice showed no sign of offense.

"I know, but, he says that everything is just so euphoric with me and it's so much different and - "

"That's because you're the first girl who's refused to have sex with him on the first few dates," Bella cut in. "He's actually had to get to know you before deciding anything and, oh my god, he's actually in a real relationship, and love isn't all about sex! What a novel concept! Come on! Mike Newton has slept with nearly every single girl in this school. Including me. You really think that his first real relationship is going to be perfect? He doesn't know what the hell he's doing," Bella ranted. And she was right. Mike's list of girls that he'd landed was almost as impressive as mine. Almost.

"Wow. I keep forgetting that. Remind me, if things don't work between Mike and I, not to date anyone from our school because, chances are, they've been in your pants," Alice remarked. Bella just rolled her eyes and slumped comfortably in her seat.

That was the strange thing about Bella. She never wore her heart on her sleeve, but if she did, it would say "I don't care." Her best friend could make fun of her sex life and she really couldn't care less. She heard what people said about her, the rumors, the legends of how she got the way she was, and she never said a word or showed any hurt that she was possibly feeling. This was sure to be an interesting semester.

As big of a bitch as Bella could be at some times, I couldn't help feeling slightly sorry for her. Her best friend was thinking about marriage while she vowed to no dating. Most people would just roll their eyes at something like that, but I had never met anyone as determined to stay away from men as Bella. If it were anyone other than Bella, having your best friend get engaged while you swear yourself to loneliness would feel like a stab in the back. But Bella didn't expect everyone else to follow her rules.

Bella had this theory about independence. She believed that if other people felt like wasting the time to fall in love and get married, that was their choice. The catch was that if you chose to follow that particular path, she believed that you shouldn't be completely reliant. For instance, take Alice. If Alice chose to get married to Mike, that was her choice, but Alice should still be able to do things for her self, especially in the case that things didn't work and they got divorced, or if some tragic accident happened, taking her beloved away.

Bella's main philosophy was that soul mates weren't one person in two different bodies (heaven knows that would explain why Bella hadn't found anyone. No one in the WORLD was enough like Bella to be her other half). No girl needs a man to complete her. I once heard her explain it to Alice like this:

"You are not one half of a whole; you are one part of a couple, hence the word 'couple.' You are one complete person. I'm looking at two eyes, to ears, two arms, two legs, two of pretty much everything. The only truly important thing that you only have one of is a heart, and even if you do couple up, do the math and you still only have one each. So nothing has really been completed there."

None the less, Bella didn't say anything further on the topic of Alice's engagement. As much as Bella wasn't exactly supportive of relationships, she wasn't about to bring her best friend completely out of the clouds. Alice was happy with her feet not exactly planted. Who was Bella to mess with that? She would give Alice a little bit of a reality check, but she would never say or do anything that would make her completely unhappy.

After AP music theory, I had English with Mike. Better to warn him now about Bella's bitterness than to face it himself.

So I dropped my backpack by the chair in front of Mike's, plopped down, and turned to face him.

"I see how it is, just get engaged and don't even tell me," I joked. A snicker escaped from Mike as he learned about my new discovery. "You do realize that Bella isn't exactly that thrilled about it?" I confirmed.

"Do I really care what the bitch thinks?" he asked. Knowing him, he didn't.

"Just be careful. Be sure not to fuck things up with Alice. You've seen what Bella's capable of. If you think things aren't working out with you and Alice, make sure to let her down gently. If a single tear falls from her eyes, you're dead," I warned him. All Mike could do in response to that was snicker.

"I think I can handle Bella," Mike falsely predicted.

"Dude, you know you can't. Just face it. You're going to have to be a lot more careful now that you've made things between you two official. Or else your obituary is going to say something like 'brutally murdered without a weapon by fellow 18-year-old classmate," I joked.

"Thanks for the warning," he replied, playing along with it.

It turned out that Bella was also going to be my lab partner this entire semester in chemistry. Mike had to fill that role last year in biology, and had told me that Bella had been a freaking whiz in that class.

That was one thing that everyone could say was awesome about Bella. You could always count on her to pull her own weight. Because she didn't waste her time with dating or relationships, or spent days in bed crying over a lost boyfriend, she made an amazing partner for group projects. She also thought that laziness was a crime, so she was always there to help the student body president and all those over-achievers set up for school dances and events.

But when Bella saw the seating chart displayed onto the screen by the overhead projector, her reaction was not what I expected it to be.

I just expected that Bella would roll her eyes and let out some exasperated sigh, dragging herself over to the table that we would have to share for the entire semester. Instead, her eyes pretty much popped out of her head and a clearly frustrated look came to her face.

Bella shuffled over to the teacher's desk. I couldn't hear what she was saying over the murmur of the class, and she was probably talking quietly, too. But I could tell she wasn't happy with her assigned lab partner and was asking to switch with someone. After all, Jasper was in our class.

When Bella didn't exactly get what she wanted, she pretty much stomped to her seat, slamming her stuff on the table between us. It was clear that she didn't want to be anywhere near me.

"Do you have a problem?" I wondered. It wasn't like Bella to throw tantrums. Other than the sleeping around thing, she was probably the most mentally mature student in the entire school. And it was clear that whatever problem she was having, it had something to do with me.

Bella forcefully removed her backpack-turned-barricade and looked me square in the face.

"You're going along with this whole marriage thing, aren't you?" she accused. Of course she would still be upset about Mike and Alice. What that had to do with me, I had no idea.

"I'm not exactly looking forward to being someone's best man at age 18, but it's their mistake let them make it," I told her. "I'm not going to just shoot down something that my best friend is looking forward to. Unlike you, I try to be optimistic."

"And how are you doing that?" she asked.

"I'm lying to myself and telling myself that I'm 100% confident that everything between Alice and Mike will work out," I explained.

"Oh yeah? And how's that working for you?" she questioned.

"I told you, I'm trying. It's only been one day," I replied.

That was when the exasperated sigh came.

"And if they're always together, that means I'll have to see a lot more of you. Fun," she said sarcastically.

That was when I realized that the problem wasn't just that she thought I was rooting for the destruction of her best friend's happiness, it was something about me that made her not so thrilled to be sitting next to me for an entire semester.

It was only later when I learned that there was much more behind the discomfort. Something that I had no control over, but something that I was part of none the less.