Disclaimer: I own nothing of the vampires or other characters, they belong to SM.
Chapter 2: Changes
There were no words to describe how poorly I felt waking up the next morning, it took all my strength just to get out of bed. Along with the emotional gauntlet I had gone through I had not gotten a good night sleep since coming to Forks. It felt like someone had died, and in a way that was true. I had not realized how much I had become drawn into the allure of being loved, I wanted the life of Bella in the book - well up until the point where Edward came to his senses and realized he did not want to be anywhere near me.
The rain was making a steady sound against the roof, it was starting to get to me. The clouds in the sky seemed even more oppressive as they reflected my depressed mood back at me. In the days of Shakespeare people thought that nature would reflect what was going on in the human world - right before Julius Caesar was assassinated there were several bad omens in the natural world. Maybe the weather outside reflected the dark and bleak times that were about to come.
I reached under my bed, tempted to pull out one of the books, I had a few extra minutes - maybe I could read just a little portion, to see how book-Bella dealt with the fact that Edward left her. No I could not allow myself to get swallowed up in a work of fiction. Look at all the crazy things I had done because of it - including sneaking into some doctor's office, only sheer luck had prevented me from being caught. I had to find a way to survive through the next sixteen months and after that I could get the heck out of this place. I could get away from everything, including Edward Cullen. I ignored the little voice that whispered that it might be too late - I was known for my stubbornness, I would convince myself to forget about my hopeless dream, though maybe I would meet a guy that was into extremely shy, awkward girls.
Pouring some cereal into a bowl, I had to remind myself yet again that there were no such things as vampires. This was all a figment of my imagination or to be more accurate this was all from some else's imagination, there was no such thing as Bella and Edward together. It was extremely conceited of me to think that a boy who looks like that would have anything to do with me, even book-Bella had not managed to keep his interest for very long.
This time when I told myself there was no such thing as vampires I would stick to that reality. What could I do about it even if the story was true? It is not like I could tell anyone, I would be deemed delusional and put in an institution - my mother's theory that this cloudy place could make a person go crazy would be proven.
It was Wednesday morning, my third day at school. The stares had actually diminished to an almost tolerable level, I guess the new girl was not as interesting as they had hoped. That was perfectly fine with me, being in the middle of the spotlight was my least favorite place to be.
I arrived a little early for my first class so I pulled out my Trig homework, trying to double checking my answers - I managed to get a completely different solution when I re-solved the first problem. Should I go with my answer form last night or the one this morning? Frustrated I closed my notebook and put it away. I grabbed the copy of Wuthering Heights, I wanted to reread some of the sections just to refresh my memory. There was something beautiful about the love story of Heathcliff and Catherine, I knew some critics that absolutely hated both characters and thought them weak and evil. In my opinion they were not evil, how could anyone that loved with all consuming passion be bad? Love was about giving everything, and someone who was truly evil could not be selfless enough to give their heart to another person.
"Are you enjoying the rain?" Eric asked as he sat down next to me. I did not appreciate the interruption, but it would have been rude to ignore him; especially since I could not use the excuse that I thought he was talking to someone else - we were the first two to arrive.
I put my book down with a deep sigh. "No I do not care for the rain that much, thank you for asking." It was always best to be polite, especially in a small town such as Forks.
"If you don't like the rain you really did come to the wrong place." He started laughing at his own joke. I tried my best to laugh along with him, despite the fact that I did not find him at all funny. Fortunately others started to arrive in the classroom, I greeted some as they settled into their chairs - it was a good enough excuse not to continue my conversation with Eric. I went back to my book, watching the interaction between Heathcliff and Catherine; I always wondered what would have happened if Catherine had actually told Heathcliff how she truly felt about him, how much she actually loved him. I truly believe things would have been completely different had they revealed the true depths of their devotion. I laughed a little at my suggestion to Catherine, I do not think I would have been brave enough to tell a man I loved him. It would have required a great deal of encouragement from him.
School was pretty much the same as yesterday except that I got a few less curious stares, this was perfectly fine with me - I enjoyed being invisible. Jessica continued to talk to me in our shared classes, our relationship was mutually beneficial; she got her audience while I got to blend into a group without having to interact with its members. The Cullens table was empty at lunch, I was determined not to let it bother me - this was easier said than done, I did not want to be the reason they were not attending school. I pushed that thought away, there was no way I the motivation behind their absence, there were a thousand more likely scenarios. They all got the stomach bug, the car would not start two days in a row and their mom would not give them a ride, they were visiting their great-aunt Gertrude whose pug just had a litter of puppies - all those were much more likely than that they were avoiding plan, boring Bella Swan.
Biology was kind of nice, I got to have my own private lab table, so I got to spread out as much as wished. I told myself it would kind of stink when Edward came back and I had to share the space with him. Though this might have been somewhat of a lie - I had sunk pretty low if I was attempting to lie to myself, but it had to be done for my sanity's sake. Gym was hell on Earth of course, but my teammates had finally learned it was to their advantage if I never touched the ball. The made sure that the only time I touched the ball was to serve, and they knew to protect themselves when I did that.
The rain was misting when I finally changed out of my gym clothes and headed outside. There was no need to make a covert trip to the hospital, or to go buy groceries so I headed straight home after school. I could hear the phone ringing as I tried to unlock the door, unfortunately when I finally grabbed the phone from the wall in the kitchen all I got was a dial tone. Whoever it was would call back if it was truly important.
We still had some leftover steak from the night before so I did not need to worry about making dinner tonight. I needed to do some laundry, desperately needing my jeans washed- since my winter wardrobe was not abundant I would need to do laundry more frequently than I had in Phoenix. I went upstairs to my room and picked up some of the dirty clothes that were thrown on the old rocking chair in the corner of my room. If I could find some of Charlie's dirty clothes I would have enough to do a full load. As I pushed jeans and T-shirts into the small washing machine I looked down at the small pile of clothes I had brought downstairs. I could have sworn I had thrown my favorite white sleeveless shirt onto the rocking chair, so why was it not with my other dirty clothes.
I went upstairs, and searched through my room. There was the possibility that I accidentally put it away when I had unpacked all my clothes on Sunday; but no that was not likely, I had been wearing it when put away my things. I decided to check anyway since there was no other place for it to be hiding, plus I did not want the dirty shirt to be mingling with my cleans ones. I pulled open the top drawer of wardrobe, picking up the folded T-shirts and trying to locate my white shirt. I could not find it anywhere.
I gave up for now, I needed to start a load now so that it would have enough time to dry. I had to remind myself that because of the higher humidity here things took a lot longer to dry than they had in Phoenix.
Charlie came home at his usual time. "Bella?" he asked by way of greeting.
"Who else would be here?" I mumbled under my breath. "Right here Ch..dad, I am just doing a load of laundry," I told him as I walked to the kitchen. That night at as we ate dinner together I pushed myself to talk, this time was probably going to be the only opportunity I would have to get to know my father. It would be best that I not squander it, hopefully in a year and a half I would heading off to college somewhere warm and dry. "So how was work dad?"
"It was fine, nothing much happens around here," he told me with a shrug. "How are you liking school? Are you making any new friends?"
I copied his shrug with one of my own. "School is fine. I am starting to learn the names of several people in my classes. I have a couple of classes with Jessica, she seems kind of nice. Though I guess everyone has been nice to me." The only problem is the potential vampire in our midst - stop it Bella, you promised not to think like that anymore.
"This is a small town, there are few secrets and most people are nice." My father seemed to think it was a good thing that nothing happened around here.
I took a deep breath and decided to go for it. "Do you know the Cullen family?" my voice might have come out a little more quiet than usual. I hoped my father would not pick up on my keen interest in the topic.
"Dr. Cullen's family? Sure Dr. Cullen is a great man."
"How nice... his kids seem a little...standoffish." I was trying to find the right words to describe them without rousing my father's suspicions.
My father got a little angry looking, which was big deal for him - my father rarely gets angry, he is much too laid back for that. "People in this town don't know what is good for them. Dr. Cullen is a wonderful surgeon and he has chosen to share his talents with the people of Forks. As for his children, I admit I was worried about the fact he and his wife came with five teenagers but I have never had any trouble from them. Which is more than could be said for some of the residents who have been here for generations. They also know how a family is supposed to behave, constantly going off on family camping trips and outings."
Charlie's speech was somewhat surprising, he usually did not string this many words together all at the same time. People must really be saying some nasty things if my father is getting this angry about it.
"I was not saying they were bad, they just seem to stick together and not talk to anyone else. They are all very attractive." I tried to cajole my father back into his benign mood.
Charlie gave a little chuckle. "You should see the doctor, it is a good thing that he is already happily married or the nurses would be too busy trying to flirt with him to do their jobs."
I laughed along with him, secretly relieved that his mood had lifted. I did not bring up the subject of the Cullens again, instead I started concentrating harder on eating my dinner.
Trying to implement my plan of getting to know Charlie a little better I decided to join him in the living room after the dinner plates were cleaned and put away. Nothing had changed at all since the last time I had come here three years ago, except that there were two more school pictures of me on the crowded shelf. I cringed as I looked at all the pictures, my life laid out in school photographs - maybe I could convince my father to put those pictures away, at least until after I graduate. It was a sad observation that my father and mother's wedding picture was still present on the mantle. Since I could remember nothing had changed in this house, not the paint or the furniture - I was starting to have the uncomfortable suspicion that my father had not moved on, he still cared about my mother. That was one thing we had in common, we both tended to be very constant - some might call it stubborn. There was one thing good about the lack of change, it helped to counter balance the constant flux that was my mother. There was something comforting about the fact that I could count on this house not changing, the only thing that you could count on in my mother was that nothing would ever stay the same - it made for an interesting if not always a comfortable way of living.
I heard the beeping sound that indicated the washing machine was done and I quickly excused myself to go move my things into the dryer. My father had changed one thing in the small living room, he had added a large TV. I was not really interested in the sports games he watched and I did not want him feeling obligated to change the channel to something he though I would like to watch - retreat was my best option for now, maybe I could find another time to bond with my father.
Right before I was about to go upstairs I heard my father call my name. "Bella you might want to call your mother." I could hear the humor in his voice.
"What makes you say that?" I asked him slightly confused by his tone as I entered the living room.
"Have you checked the phone messages yet?" He did not wait for me to answer his question instead he pushed the play button on the answering machine. I heard my mother's very frantic voice wondering where I was and why I had not answered her emails.
"I will go write her." I told my father after the third distraught message. There were three more unheard messages on the machine but I was not going to listen to anymore - I understood what the issue was.
I went upstairs to check my emails, I had eight new ones all from my mother; all but two of them had been sent today.
Everything is fine mom, I have been a little busy with school and trying to get used to my new routines.
Love, Bella
I sent the email off quickly before she started calling the FBI or something, my mother was more than capable of doing that. I sat down to write her a more involved email.
Mom,
I started school, everything is going fine, my classes are pretty easy. The people here are very nice, and I am even making a couple of friends. Charlie has been great, he even bought me a truck. You would really like it, it is nice and sturdy. Perfect for me. Mom you are going to have to calm down, you know how the dial-up works so I don't always have the time to fight the pop ups so that I can check my email.
Love you,
Bella
That should satisfy her for a little bit. I would have to remind myself to check my email at least every couple of days, just to make sure she did not panic. I began to wonder where Phil was, I had left him to take care of her, why was he not calming her down?
I sighed as I sent off the second email to my mother. I fished out my Trig homework, maybe I should see if one of the girls - well I would probably prefer Angela - wants to get together and study math. I glanced over at the the rocking chair in the corner, Edward was good at math, in fact he was good at all things. I laughed at myself, only in the book of fantasy was there a chance that Edward would actually sit in my rocking chair. The only thing that would occupy that old chair would be my laundry. A wave of depression hit me as I missed the future that I would never have. I was actually not completely shallow and vain, I did not want a boyfriend that was as good looking as Edward. What I really wanted was the man inside the pretty body, the vampire that fought with every fiber of his being to overcome the cards he had been dealt. A man who could look inside of me and see someone worthy of love - that is what I wanted, the outer shell of the body was very nice but it was nothing compared to the man inside.
A small laugh burst out, it was no a very happy sound; how was I to know that the Edward from the book and the one I had seen across the room in the cafeteria were one and the same? For all I knew this Edward was completely shallow and self-centered; the reason his family did not interact with any other students could have been due to the fact that they thought us beneath them. Though that was not fair, the Cullen family had done nothing to warrant such a low opinion of them; for all I knew they were sweet and caring individuals that for some strange reason kept to themselves.
I went to sleep much easier that night, it could have been due to the fact that the rain had finally stopped falling or it could have been because I had not gotten a good night sleep since coming to Forks. Whatever the reason, I had a restful dreamless night.
The Cullen family did not show up for the rest of the week. I would eat lunch with Jessica, Angela, and some of the others while I watched to see if anyone was sitting at the Cullen's table. I finally figured out the Trig homework but our teacher was not giving us a break, he had moved onto another even more confusing topic - seriously there was no way I would ever understand this natural log stuff. I finally located my sleeveless white shirt, somehow it had fallen behind the wardrobe. When I picked it up it had a strange smell associated with it, I could not seem to identify it. It was not an unpleasant smell, in fact it smelled so nice that I was somewhat reluctant to wash it.
The weekend came faster than I would have thought, I had the house pretty much to myself since Charlie was not used to having someone else living with him so he was scheduled to work most of the weekend.
I spent my time cleaning the house, doing some extra homework so that I would not have to do it next week, and I spent an inordinate amount of time composing an email to my mother. It was very hard to achieve the right balance between I miss you but I am happy to be here; most of my words were lies of course. I managed to misplace another shirt, if I was still living with my mother I would have accused her of taking it - but I somehow doubted that Charlie would have any use for a small blue and grey stripped long sleeved t-shirt. I searched high and low as I continued to clean the house, there were not that many place where I could have put it especially in a house this small.
I baked cookies on Saturday, for a good fifteen minutes I was totally freaking out - who the heck did not have flour in their house? I finally located some in the back of the pantry, hiding behind the stack of canned beans. Based on the number of canned beans he kept in the pantry it was safe to assume Charlie was fond of baked beans. I had bought some peanut butter for sandwiches so I made peanut butter cookies, I did not even bother trying to locate any chocolate chips. Charlie looked very surprised when he came home to freshly baked cookies, he did not say much by way of thanks but he did manage to eat three cookies even before sitting down to eat the spaghetti I had made for dinner.
The books under my bed remained untouched, I refused to be sucked into that dream world yet again. I needed to focus on this reality, I had already done several uncharacteristic things due to that book - I would not let it guide my life.
Monday was the coldest it had been since I got to Forks but at least it was not raining. Several people greeted me as I headed towards the English building, I smiled and said hi back. I did not know their names but I was starting to recognize their faces.
We had a pop quiz in English, it was ridiculously simple - I was guaranteed an A. In the past week I had gotten comfortable with the layout of the school and the simple routine of the day; I no longer needed an escort to get to my next class. It was when we stepped out of the English building that I first noticed that something was wrong. These big wads of white fluff were swirling all around us.
"Oh wow, it is snowing," Mike's voice was almost reverent.
"Ugh is that what this stuff is?" I tried to brush off the bits of cotton that had started to settle on my sleeves.
"Don't you like snow?" Mike seemed somewhat shocked.
"No snow means it is colder," and cold was a bad thing in my book. "Is snow supposed to look like this? Where are the beautiful little flakes?"
"Have you never seen snow?" he asked me.
"Sure I have," in movies, it did not snow much in Phoenix.
All of a sudden something flew out of the air and hit Mike on the ear. I was going with the assumption that was supposed to be a snowball. Mike seemed to be a favorite target of the snowballs that were flying around, I decided it would be best not to stand too close to him. I started to speed up and move faster towards my next class, I did not want to be hit with one of those things.
The walk between classes became a little more dangerous, it seemed everyone else was throwing the snow around. There were a lot of squeals and laughs as the snowballs hit and missed their targets. I kept a binder in front of my face like a shield, hoping not to be hit.
Jessica was making fun of my fear of snow when we stepped into the cafeteria to eat lunch. That was when I notice an anomaly in my normal routine, the quick sweep I had made of the cafeteria revealed that something was different today. The Cullens were sitting at their table again - my face flooded with heat as all my suspicions rose to the forefront. No, no Bella you will not think like that, you promised yourself you would not consider the possibility that they were vampires. I moved my eyes away from them and concentrated on getting something to eat. My appetite was completely gone so I made due with some fruit and a drink.
"Are you ok?" Mike asked me as he joined us in line. I shuddered when I saw that he still had bits of snow stuck in his hair. I could only begin to imagine how cold that was. Some of the snow was starting to melt, I could see a chunk of half melted snow starting to slide down his neck. I shuddered once again, the thought of something that cold against my neck was revolting.
"Yeah, I am just not very hungry right now." I mumbled as I grabbed my things to walk to our usual table. I tried my best not to look over at the table across the cafeteria, my sanity depended on it. I resisted for almost the entire lunch period, only once did my resolve fail. They were sitting around the table laughing, the perfect picture - it could have been a scene from a movie it looked so beautiful and perfect. Since I had broken my promise to myself I might as well continue to look. I could only see Alice, Rosalie and Emmett's faces, the other two were facing away from me. They were all perfectly dressed in varied shades of white and cream; the color complimented their pale skin. I was not an expert on fashion by any means but even I could tell the difference between the quality of clothes they wore and what the rest of the student body had on. I watched as Alice said something and Emmett burst out laughing, Rosalie just seemed to toss her hair in annoyance. I wondered if she practiced throwing her hair over her shoulder that perfectly or it if was something that came naturally to her. It was interesting to note that they did not seem to be eating again, you would think that someone as big as Emmett would be constantly eating but the food in front of him was untouched. I felt myself getting suspicious, maybe I had...but no I would not think like that.
I quickly looked back at my apple, I concentrated on taking a bite and chewing it. It was pretty good, but I guess we were in Washington the apples should be really good here. Except it was no longer apple season, so they must be importing this from somewhere else.
"Edward Cullen is staring at you," Jessica whispered in my ear with a giggle. I followed her gaze to the Cullen table to realize she was right. He was looking in our direction, but I could not say with any certainty that he was looking at me specifically. I was too far away to be sure, but there seemed to be a frustrated look on his face. I smiled for a moment, maybe he was failing in his attempts to read my mind.
"What is so funny Bella?" Jessica's question came out like an accusation. A blush flooded my face as I realized I had not stopped staring at Edward Cullen, I ducked behind my hair as quickly as possible.
"What?" I had not been paying attention to her. "No nothing is funny, don't worry about it," I blushed even more red of course, I really hated the fact that my face gave everything away.
I could see that she did not believe me but much to my relief she dropped the subject. It helped that she was distracted by Mike who was planning an extravagant snowball fight after school ended. It looked like I would not be going anywhere today - I wondered if Coach Clapp would allow me to hide in the gym for a few minutes in order to avoid World War III.
There was one important detail I was trying to avoid, but the decision would have to be made sooner than later. Should I go to biology class? Would I be endangering everyone around me? But I had promised myself I would forget all about the vampire business. So I guess that decided it for me, I would go to class and sit next to the most beautiful boy I had ever seen.
As we stepped outside the cafeteria there was a collective groan from the group around me. I let out a quiet sigh of relief, the snow had turned into rain - there would be no snowball fight after school, it would be safe for me to leave right after gym. My worries over what would happen during my next class evaporated for a moment as I noticed the snow was slowly disappearing because of the rain.
My lab table was still empty when I got to Biology class, I sat down in my usual seat and pulled out my things. The fears had returned, no matter how many times I told myself there was no way the book could be correct my heart was till beating at a furious pace. I was doodling on the corner of my notebook when someone approached my table, concentrating even more furiously on the loops I drew another swirl but in my determination to ignore the person sitting next to me the drawing became unbalanced. The loud scraping of the chair startled me, it was such a contrast to the quiet footsteps, almost like he deliberately wanted to announce his presence.
"Hello." I heard a beautiful voice next to me. The sound of his voice was so astonishingly beautiful I had no choice but to look up at the source. Instantly I was mesmerized, there was nothing that could have prepared me for looking into the face of Edward Cullen. My eyes were captured by the most amazingly colored golden eyes I had ever seen. The large jewel-like eyes were highlighted by the long eyelashes, women spent millions of dollars every year trying to get the mascara and the eye lash curlers to achieve this look - I was willing to bet few women ever go to this level of perfection. The high cheekbones and strong square jaw made me want to run my hands along the planes of his face. Though if I had my choice it would have been his hair that I touched first, the dark locks of red were interspersed with chunks of gold and blonde. It looked like he had been enjoying the outdoors like the rest of the school, there were chunks that appeared a little wet - not that it made his look any less perfect, in fact it seemed to add to his appeal.
"I missed you in class last week therefore I never got to formally introduce myself, I am Edward Cullen." He was not talking, instead his voice was melodic enough that I could have sworn he was singing.
Of course you are, I thought. But I was still too stunned to say anything else, I felt my heart start to speed up even more.
"You must be Bella Swan." He told me with a small smile. My name on his lips was enough to make me start feeling dizzy, though that might have been because I had forgotten to breathe. I took a long and steady deep breath trying to calm my swiftly beating heart. It took me a moment to realize that he had called me Bella, and another few seconds for my suspicions to rise. He had been gone all week yet he knew to call me Bella? It had taken me till Thursday to finally break everyone around me from the habit of calling me Isabella, some people still made the mistake of calling me by my full name.
We were interrupted by Mr. Banner giving us instructions, I was only half paying attention to what he was saying. Something about figuring out the order of our slides without our textbooks or notes to help us.
"H-how do you now my name?" I asked Edward in a small voice, all the fears I had been able to somewhat push down resurfaced with a vengeance.
He gave a small laugh, it was not surprise that this too came out sounding perfect - there was no way he was going to be one of those people who snorted while they laughed. "I think everyone knows your name, it is not everyday that we have an addition to the student body."
I had known all along that I would be a subject of a great deal of gossip when I came to live with my father but it was a little different when someone stated it so bluntly. Embarrassment flooded my face, I could feel my blush all the way to my ears which were very likely a beet red color. For some reason l could not figure out I continued with my question. "That is not what I meant. Why did you call me Bella?"
"Do you prefer Isabella?" His forehead scrunched together in confusion, I regretted asking my stupid question but still forged ahead.
"No, not at all. I like Bella" I tried to explain without bringing up my paranoia regarding his family. "It is just that everyone here has called me Isabella when first meeting me." My expression must have been off, he was looking at me like he could not figure out what I was. "I swear my dad must call me Isabella behind my back, because everyone starts out calling me Isabella." I could hear myself rambling and decided it would be best just to shut up.
I got lucky and Mr. Banner finished with his instructions, I reluctantly tore my eyes away from the most beautiful creature I had ever seen in my entire life as Mr. Banner commanded us to begin.
"Ladies first, partner?" I heard him speak with that stunning voice.
I looked back into the gold eyes and became instantly mesmerized again. There was a crooked smile on his face, the right side of his mouth was a little higher than the left. I stopped breathing again.
"Or I could start if you wish." He continued as I stared like an infatuated imbecile. To my dismay the smile faded from his face; I needed that smile back almost as much as I needed to start breathing again.
"No... no I can go first." I told him grabbing the microscope and pulling it towards me. I hurriedly put in the first slide, focused on the low magnification before switching to a higher magnification to see the cells. It only took me a moment to identify the slide, the DNA in the nucleus was packed into chromosomes but they were not neatly lined up yet. "Prophase." I announced with absolute certainty - I had done this lab before in Phoenix. As soon as I made my pronouncement I started to remove the slide, ready to go onto the next one. Two cool fingers were placed on my wrist, it was a simple touch - they did did not exert any force at all. The first thing I noticed was the temperature of his fingers, he must have been enjoying the snow with the rest of the student population; but surely his hands would have warmed up by now. It was not the frigid temperature of his fingers that caused me to gasp and pull my hand away from him - my skin reacted to his touch in a strange way, a thousand little tingles began at my wrist and travelled all the way up my arm.
"Do you mind if I look?" I notice he had pulled his hand away from me almost instantly. I made a fist with my hand, forcing myself not to give into the temptation of touching him again - I wanted to know if the tingling feeling was just an anomaly or if it would happen again.
I gave a small smirk as I finally understood what he was asking, did he think I was wrong? He would soon find out that when it came to Biology I knew my stuff.
"Prophase." He confirmed my earlier finding. He was looking at the microscope so he did not notice me rolling my eyes at him. He wrote down the answer quickly, his penmanship was unbelievably beautiful - I had not seen someone write in that style of cursive in a long time. It reminded me of the old letters from my grandmother that I had found in a box; each letter was precise and perfectly formed, as if he had spent hours practicing.
While I was examining his writing he was swift to remove the first slide and replace it with the second. "Anaphase," he muttered, and turned quickly to write down the answer.
"Can I look?" I was still a little upset over the fact that he seemed to think so little of my intelligence. He looked up at me like I had grown a second head, it seemed I was not the only one who did not like their answers questioned. After a moment the surprise on his face was replaced by a smug look, he pushed the microscope in my direction.
I looked swiftly down the eyepiece trying to take less time examining the slide than he had. He was unfortunately right, "anaphase," I begrudgingly agreed with him as I switched out the slide for the next one. This is how we continued through the entire exercise, we only spoke the bare minimum words to each other. After the fifth slide I realized that we were the only ones even close to being done, the competition had caused me to completely forget that there were others around us. It was not that hard to do this, I was totally aware of every breath and movement that Edward made. I noticed a strange dichotomy in the was he was sitting next to me. His face might have been angled towards mine but his body was as far away from me as the table would allow without obstructing the aisle. Out of the corned of my eye I saw him take a shallow breath and his hands tightened into fists, I could see then tendons stretching over his knuckles.
I could not resist looking up at him, he was just too beautiful to be real. Would it be too obvious if I pinched myself to make sure this was not a dream? He seemed to be studying me with a the same level of intensity - the frustrated look was back on his face. It must really suck not being able to read my mind. I bit my lip to prevent the smile from appearing on my face, it would be in my best interest not to blur the line between reality and fantasy.
I looked into his golden eyes and instantly lost my train of thought. That was strange, when I had seen Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper's eyes last week even across the cafeteria I could tell the color had been something dark. But I had not seen Edwards eyes, so how did I know this was not his normal color - he was adopted like the others so it would be normal for him to have eyes that differed in color form his siblings. Mr. Banner interrupted my thoughts when he came to check why we were not working.
He thought he was being subtle trying to look at our answer sheet over my shoulder, I moved a little to the side to allow him a better look. His face took on a sour look as he realized not only were we finished but our answers were right.
"So, Edward, didn't you think Isabella should get a chance with the microscope?" He asked my lab partner.
"Bella," Edward told our Biology teacher the name I preferred before he went on to explain that I had come up with three of the five answers. That was when Mr. Banner decided it might be a good thing to include me in the conversation.
He swung his gaze at me, "have you done this lab before?
I could not help the blush that covered my face. "Not with onion root," my tone sounded defensive even to me.
"Whitefish blastula?" He was not going to let me get away with my half answer.
"Yeah," my blush intensified.
"Were you in an advanced placement program in Phoenix?" I really did not like this much attention, out of the corner of my eye I could see Edward focusing intensely on our words.
"Yes." My answer sounded like a question, but I was not sure how he wanted me to answer.
"Hmmm," he started to walk away to check on some of the other groups. "I guess it is a good thing you two are partners." He mumbled something else under his breath, but it was too quiet for me to understand.
I looked down at my hands, examining my nails.
"It is too bad about the snow isn't it?" Edward spoke again. I looked up at him in surprise wondering why he was bringing up the neutral topic of the weather.
The mesmerizing golden eyes made me forget the role I was playing. "Not really," I told him honestly.
"You don't like the cold." His words were a statement not a question.
I shrugged and told the truth yet again. "Or the wet." I really needed to look away from his eyes.
"Forks must be a difficult place for you to live." It was like he was talking to himself. I did not bother confirming his statement, who would not find this place difficult to tolerate? I looked away from his distracting face, trying to gather up my scattered thoughts.
"Why did you come here?" His question was blunt to the point of being borderline rude.
"It is complicated." I looked back down at my notebook, picking up a pen to continue with my drawing. I did not want to think about my reasons for being here.
"I think I can keep up." He told me, there was something in his voice that seemed to indicate this was more than just a stranger trying to make small talk. Why would he care about my pathetic life?
I looked up into his face to try to confirm my suspicion that he really wanted to know the real me but instead I got lost in the golden eyes. "My mother got remarried."
"That does not sound complicated." His tone had become soothing and sympathetic. "When did this happen?"
I barely suppressed the sigh that tried to surface. "Last September."
"And you don't like him." Edward continued, putting words in my mouth.
I was quick to correct him, "no Phil is great."
The confused look was back on his face. For some strange reason I felt compelled to keep talking, "Probably a little too young, but nice enough."
"Why didn't you stay with them?" He asked me, a crease had popped up in the middle of his forehead as he frowned at me.
"Phil plays ball for a living, so he travels a lot." A small smile appeared on my face, it might have been why my mother got along so well with him - in some ways Phil was till a kid at heart. They were probably the same level of maturity, neither one of them really wanting to grow up.
Edward wanted to know if Phil was anyone famous, I quickly clarified Phil's ability and place in the world of baseball. Phil was an amateur - he would never leave the minor leagues, I was not being mean just honest.
"My mother stayed home with me as he travelled around to the various games." I continued with my explanation. "I could tell that she missed him."
Edward jumped to the wrong conclusion yet again, predicting that I had been banished to Forks by my mother so she could follow Phil around.
"No she did not send me here, I sent myself." I could hear the sadness in my voice.
My explanation did not seem to have made any difference, quite the opposite, he now seemed even more bewildered. "But you are unhappy."
"So?" I asked him belligerently, why could he not mind his own business? And more importantly why did I see the need to try to make him understand?
The mystified expression cleared from his eyes, instead his face reflected understanding and sympathy. I did not want to see the pity in his eyes so I turned away from him.
"That hardly seems fair." His voice had gentled almost like he wanted to make me feel better.
"Have you not heard? Life is not always fair."
His laugh sounded hollow, "yes I heard that somewhere before."
I turned back to my doodles, trying my best to ignore him before I did something crazy like throw myself in his arms and explain the full extent of my loneliness. That was the biggest issue I had with coming to Forks, my mother was the person who knew me the best. Though not even my mother truly understood me, it was like my brain did not function the same way as everyone else's around me.
Luckily for me Mr. Banner asked everyone to stop working as he started to explain what we were supposed to have seen in our microscopes.
For the first time in a week I focused all my concentration on what the teacher was saying, taking meticulous notes over a subject that I already knew. My mind kept wandering down dangerous paths, little voices pointing out different observations that would be completely irrelevant had I not read that book about vampires. I managed to keep the small voice at bay until I got home, that was when I let my mind go where it wanted. There was nothing that could prove my suspicions, at least not one thing that stood out; but a lot of little things were starting to pop up and when taken together they made me somewhat uncomfortable. First there was his eyes, humans did not really have eyes that color. Then there was the fact that he knew to call me Bella without me having to correct him, or even the fact that he had spoken to me at all. I had not thought it an unusual occurrence until Mike brought it up in gym, stating that Edward did not normally talk to people.
These observations kept floating around in my head, but I could not decide one way or another. I needed some concrete evidence - maybe I would try to see if their eyes would get darker as time went on. There was still nothing I could do about it, decisions made I gathered up the ingredients to make something for dinner. Reaching up on a high shelf to get the paper towels I noticed something behind the washing machine. Using the broom I scooped out my missing shirt, I shook the fluff off a little bit and almost immediately noticed the smell - it was the same pleasant scent as had been on my white shirt, the other article of clothing that had gone missing. Unable to figure out what was going on with my disappearing clothes I headed upstairs to finish some math homework before my father came home.
A/N: I know it pretty much is repeat of most things in the book. Anyway thanks for the encouragement to continue writing this story, it might take me a while but I will continue; unless you guys tell me I am wasting my time. So please review.