AN

This chapter was much more fun to write than the first, and I think it's better...Oh and sometimes all my writing comes out weirdly spaced out, so sorry about that. And sorry about the bold print. FOr some reason fanfiction won't let me get it off...
Thanks for the reivews so far! Keep them coming!

xx


It was a week after my first day in Forks high, when Bella came back. I saw her first at lunch. Instead of just two couples, I saw two couples and Bella. For some reason, I smiled. She suddenly looked up, and for a second our eyes met across the room. I quickly looked down, my eyes were on my food.

"Bella Cullen is staring at you." Mike whispered beside me, looking behind him.

"She is? Does she look mad?" I asked, keeping my head down.

"No. She's smiling. Should she be?" He frowned, still looking at her.

"I don't think she likes me." I said quietly.

"The Cullen's don't seem to like anyone." Mike said, still looking at her.

I nodded my head once, in agreement, it did seem to be true.

"Stop staring." I hissed at Mike.

He smiled, and turned round.

He looked at me, his eyes were dazzling, "You know she was staring at you the whole time. Staring at the back of your head, and I don't think she blinked once." He said, in slight amazement.

I said nothing.


Last period was biology, again. I put my books down on the table, next to Bella.

"Hello." Her soft sweet voice said, beside me.

I turned to look at her, she spoke. Her voice matched her looked perfectly.

"Hi." I said, frowning slightly. She talked to me?

"I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. I apologise. I'm Bella Cullen."

I stared at her, I didn't think I could speak. She looked at me, slightly amused.

"Er..Edward...Swan." I mumbled.

"Nice to meet you." She said politely.

It was silent for a second. I tried not to stare at her, but I couldn't really help it. She was different today, her eyes were a little more golden I noticed, and she was talking to to me.

"So...er..Forks must be a different place for you to live."

"Yeah. It is."

She frowned at me slightly, but she didn't want the conversation to stop, so she continued asking questions.

"Why did you move?"

"Its..complicated."

"Then un-complicate it." She said, with humour, but softly.

"My mom got remarried." I explained.

"Oh, don't you like the guy?" Her voice was caring, she made me want to talk to her.

"No, Phil's okay. Maybe a little young."

"Then..why did you move?"

"Phil's a baseball player, he travels around a lot." I explained.

"Have I heard of him?" She smiled.

"Probably not. He doesn't play well." I smiled.

She didn't say anything, but the look on her face prompted me to continue.

"Whenever Phil went on his travels, she stayed, because she didn't want to leave me alone..." I paused and looked at her. She was looking at me intently, she nodded for me to continue. "So I decided to leave, so she could be with Phil. it was making her un-happy, not being with him, you see." I thought I would have bored her with my story, but she seemed truly interested in my life.

"But now your un-happy...that doesn't seem fair."

"Life's not fair." I said, slightly defensive.

She laughed softly, a beautiful, silvery laugh. "I guess that's true."

The bell rang.

"Well, see you around." She said,. She left the classroom, quickly. I frowned slightly after her.

Jessica came up to me, also frowning

"Bella seemed..friendly today." She didn't seem to like it.

"Yeah." I was still confused about it myself.

"Strange..she normally doesn't talk to people, expect her family." She sounded annoyed, and confused at the same time. I smiled at her, said goodbye, and quickly walked out to my truck.


"Dinner was nice." Charlie said to me, that night. As Charlie really couldn't cook, I cooked for him every night. I didn't mind too much though, it made me feel responsible.

"Thanks." I didn't look up at him, I was loading up the dishwasher.

There was silence for a minute, but I could tell that Charlie was still in the room, which was unusual. Normally, as soon as he had finished, he would head straight to the sofa and watch whatever sports game that was on. That was something I didn't get from Charlie. His love of sports. Or his love of nature. I suppose I'd spend too much of my childhood with my mom.

"How are you liking Forks?" He asked me after a while.

"Its good." I tried to sound like I meant it, I think Charlie believed me.

"Good. Made any friends?"

I turned to him, "Yeah. Well, a few kids in my class are nice and I talk to them, and sit with them at lunch."

"Who?" Charlie was curious.

"Um..Mike Newton." He was probably the closest friend I had made, so far.

"Oh. Nice kid."He nodded in satisfaction. I wasn't too surprised that Charlie knew of him, Forks was a small place, and everyone seemed to know everyone.

I said nothing.

"Anyone else? Any girls?" I could tell he didn't really want to ask me this, but thought it was somehow his duty as a father to ask.

"Well, Jessica and Angela..." I didn't know their surnames.

Charlie frowned slightly. "Angela Weber?"

"Yeah, that's it." I wasn't sure whether he approved.

"No one else?" He sounded slightly disappointed.

"Bella Cullen as well." I said quickly, before I could stop myself. I wasn't really sure if you could call us friends, but she talked to me today anyway. And I felt like I had to say someone else, or Id be letting down Charlie.

"Ahh." He smiled then. He seemed to be pleased with what I said.

I raised my eyebrow slightly.

"The Cullen's are a great family."

"They are?" I couldn't keep the surprise out of my voice.

"Yes, very respectable. Her father, Carlisle, is a doctor. A great man, and a great doctor.

I said nothing. I didn't want to seem overly interested in their family, but I was.

"I have never seen Bella, only heard about her." He said, laughing slightly. I don't think I'd heard him laugh since I'd been living here with him. I raised my eyebrow again.

"But I have seen some of her siblings. All..very nice looking.." He said, slightly awkwardly.

I nodded in agreement, smiling slightly.

"And Bella is friendly to you?"

I swallowed, "Yes. I sit next to her in biology. Very..friendly." Today she was anyway.

There was silence again. A longer one this time. I sighed.

"Um..I have some homework to do, then I'll go to bed."

"Night." Charlie mumbled.

"Night."


I put my tray down next to Mike, as I did every lunch now.

He smiled at me when he saw me, "Any girls you thinking about taking to the dance?" He asked me. It took me a moment to realise what he was talking about. As I remebered, I groaned inwardly. The school dance, next weekend. Everyone was talking about it, I took care in avoiding those conversations. I hated dances.

"No. I don't do dances." I replied quickly.

Mike laughed at my tone.

I had to smile.

"What about you?"

"Ehh..maybe." I noted his quick glance at Jessica, sitting at the other end of the table.

"Jessica?" I whispered.

He nodded.

I smiled at him.

"When will you do it?"

"I think at the end of the day today. Because then, if she says no, it won't be awkward, as I wouldn't have to see her until Monday." He explained with a sigh.

"I'm sure she won't say no." I said, kindly.

"You think?" Mike asked, doubtful.

"I do." I nodded convincingly. I had seen Jessica exchange a few small glances at Mike the past week, but I didn't know much about girls.

I sighed, talking about girls, I had biology next. I had no idea what Bella would be like today. It was like she had multiple personality disorder or something.


I had just sat down, next to Bella, when Jessica approached me.

"Hey, Edward." Jessica said. Her smile was a little to big, and there was a glint in her eye.

"Hi." I mumbled.

"Um..Have you asked anyone to the dance yet?"

"No." I replied quickly.

"I was thinking, whether you would like to ask me?"

I was surprised at her forwardness, so suprosed I couldn't speak for a moment.

"Um.... I'm sorry Jessica, I'm not in town that weekend." It was the first thing I could think of.

"Oh." Her face fell a little. I felt bad.

"I'm sorry, it was arranged a while ago. Maybe next dance?" I didn't think I sounded convincing at all, but she seemed pleased enough.

"Okay." See ya. She returned to her seat after that.

I heard a slight chuckle from beside me.

I turned to look at Bella.

Her lips were parted in that perfect smile, and her golden eyes were sparkling.

"What?" I said, failing to see what was amusing.

"Nothing." She said with a grin. I frowned at her.

"I was just wondering...Are you really going away this weekend, or you just letting her down easy?" Her voice was formal, yet amused.

I smiled slightly, "I do need to go to Seattle soon, but I guess I could go any time."

She smiled again at my response, her smile lit up her whole face. It was angelic.

"Didn't you want to go with her?"

"Well...not particularly. But I can't dance anyway."

She laughed.

"I'm sure you're better than you think you are."

"No. I'm really not lying. The last time I went dancing, I stepped on a girls foot, and broke three of her toes."

"Ouch" She was still smiling

"Yup. The crack sounded pretty bad. So I promised myself, never to dance again."

"Never?" He voice was slightly disappointed.

"No. Sadly, no one will ever see the pure awfulness of me dancing ever again."

She laughed.

"You going to the dance?" I asked her.

"Naa."

"Not a fan on dancing either?" I asked.

"No, I love to dance."

"Really?" That surprised me.

"Yeah." She sighed. "But I guess, my kind of dancing isn't the best kind for a school dance."

"What do you mean?"

"Well...don't laugh..but I'm more a ballroom dancing kind of girl. Old fashioned stuff, you know.." She sounded embarrassed, but her cheeks were still as pale as ever.

"You don't seem like that kind of girl."

"There's a lot of stuff people don't know about me." She said quietly.

There was silence for a moment.

I was just about to open my mouth to try and break it, but she did first.

"So, doing anything interesting this weekend?" She a, casually changing the subject.

"I was planning on going to Port Angeles tonight with Mike. I need to go to a good music store."

She looked like her thoughts were in other places, "Sounds good." She mused.

"You?"

She paused for a moment, "I think I'm going hiking with my family tomorrow, or maybe camping the whole weekend." Her eyes glinted with excitement.

"You like camping? And hiking?"

"Love them." She smiled.

I smiled back at her. Our friendship was looking better.

"Hey, I'm sorry about last week, when I first saw you. I was really rude." She said, as if hearing my thoughts.

"It's fine..We okay now?" I wondered with a smile.

"Umm..I guess so.." She sounded unsure, but I didn't dwell on it. I sighed, and started to do some work.


After school, I caught up with Mike.

"Hey." He grinned wildly as he said that.

"Somone's happy." I commented.

"Jessica said yes!" He looked so happy, I had to smile.

"I'm glad."

"Still up for Port Angeles tonight?I'm going to need to buy a tux now.."

I smiled.

"Oh, and do you mind if Eric comes too?"

It took me a few minutes to remember who Eric was. He was the lanky, greasy skinned guy, who sat quietly at our table.

"um..yeah..I don't mind."

"Great..You see, he asked Angela to the dance, and she said no. He's kinda...bummed out about it. He really likes her. I wanted to cheer him up."

"That's very nice of you." I smiled.

"I'll come by your house in an hour, okay?"

"Okay." I smiled.


"What about this one?" Mike asked, for the sixth time.

"It's fine. They're all fine." I said sighing.

"But not great." Mike sighed as well.

I sighed again. I looked at my watch,

"It's getting late. If we want to eat something we should get going soon..and I want to go to a music store." I had looked on the internet for a music place in Port Angeles, turns out there was only one.

"Woah, I didn't know we've been here so long." Mike said, looking at his watch. "You can go to your music place now."

"Do you don't mind?"

"No, it's fine. We'll meet at that Italian restaurant in an forty minutes, okay?"

I nodded, and left him and Eric in the shop.


The bell above the door rang as I opened it. The music store was smaller than I imagined. I peered around, quickly reading the labels above the sections: Experimental, Minimalist, Fusion, New world. I groaned.

Wasn't the kind of music I was looking for. I sighed, and walked straight back out. That lady at the counter looked disappointed.

I groaned again as I walked down the pavement. The air was freezing, now that dark had come. Although it took me nearly twenty minutes to find this store, I still had twenty minutes to kill. I crossed to road and headed into a park.

I found a bench, below a lamp, with a newspaper on it. Charlie always said I didn't know enough about the outside world.

I read the headline, 'More teenage deaths across the states.' and I sighed. The outside world sucked.

I read every word carefully, trying to take up as much time as I could.

I sighed again. Everything was so depressing.

I got up and walked down the street, heading towards the restaurant, on the off chance that Mike and Eric would be there early.

I glanced up at the street. It was dimly lit from the few street lights, and fog was starting to creep into the air. I looked at the floor as I walked, buring my nexk into my jacket for warmth. After a while, I looked at my surroundings, and suddenly realised that this wasn't the street I had come down.

My pace quickened slightly, and I turned corner after corner.

Looking down one street, I decieded that this was the way to go. The shops looked better, and there were a few bars. I was going back towards the centre of town. I passed one bar with drunk girls hanging around outside.

I was nearly running now.

"Hey, you running away from us?" One girl said, her words slurred.

"No. I have to be someone quickly." I looked on ahead and kept walking.

She run up behind me.

"You could be late." She said.

"No I can't. I'm meeting my friend right now."

"I'm sure he could join us." She giggled. She was stroking my hair now. Her arms were round my waist.

"Baby?" A male voice called.

We both spun round. Her arm still round me, her hands entwined in my hair. I noticed the door of the bar was open, and a bald, burly man with tattoos was approaching us.

"Get away from my girl." He shouted.

"Hey, I did nothing." I put my hands up in innocence, which did not work.

He was getting closer. I backed away.

"She just come up to me and starting touching me" I immediately regretting saying that.

"So you're saying my girl would cheat on me?" I was still backing away. The girl moved to the side.

"No. I didn't mean it like that. I have to go." I tried to run away.

"You're not going anywhere." He said pulled me back by my collar.

"Look.." I started to say.

He interrupted me, which I was almost glad of. I had no idea what I was going to say.

"You think you can fight me off?" He said grinning.

"No." I said quietly.

"Good, because you can't." His nose was an inch away from mine.

A heard a strange, skidding, shrieking noise, and I saw headlights turn the corner. It was a car, I sighed with relief. Maybe I could escape now?

The car sped down the middle of the street,heading towards us.

It pulled a tight turn, and stopped mere centimetres away for the guy, who was still holding my collar.

One of the doors swung open, and closed with a thud. Someone stepped out, I could hear the click of heels against the road.

The guy let go of my collar, laughing. "This is my lucky day."

I looked into the darkness. I gasped slightly as I saw the face. I recognised the wavy brunette hair, and the silver volvo. It was Bella.

"Get away from him." She said, her voice harsh.

He just laughed slightly, He moved towards her.

"Get away from her." I said, trying to have my voice just as harsh as Bella's. I'm not sure it worked.

I saw Bella's lips curl into a small smile.

"I can protect myself." She said with meaning.

"Really?" The man said, as he started to stroke her face, and move closer to her lips.

Bella put her arms round his waist, and pulled her face into his. I saw he was as surprised as I was.

"Yes. Really." She said quietly into his ear.

She moved her hands around to his chest, and punched him, with both fists.

It happened so quickly. He flew up into the air, he sped past me at incredible speed, and he landed twenty metres away.

I stood there, staring at her. She mad a strange snarling noise.

"Get in the car." She said quickly and strongly.

I didn't hesitate. More people were starting to come out of the bar.

I ran into her car, Bella hesitated slightly, but followed me.

Beside me, in her car, Bella was gripping her leather seat. Her face the same as it was that first time in biology. It scared me.

I was also slightly scared by the fact that she had just punched a strong man, and he had literally flown twenty metres.

"You okay, Bella." I said warily, looking into her face. Her eyes were black, you couldn't tell the pupil from the iris. She was still shaking slightly, and gripping the seat.

"No. Not really."

I had no idea what to say.

"Distract me. Say something." She said, her voice was urgent.

"Something." I used to always do that with Charlie, whenever he said that.

She was still shaking, but a small smile appeared on her lips.

"Keep going. I need to calm down."

"Umm...Mike asked Jessica to the dance after biology." I couldn't think of anything else "He was very happy. But I didn't mention that she asked me to ask her an hour before..." I didn't really know what else to say, I didn't know what would calm her down.
The shaking had stopped at least.
"Thanks. Sometimes I have slight problems with anger." She explained quietly.
"Um..I have to go to Mike and Eric. I was supposed to meet them like nearly an hour ago." I didn't realise how quickly the time had passed.
"Of course. I'll take you to them." She said quietly.
She drove fast. Weaving in between the cars, ignoring the honks. I was the one gripping the seat now.
We pulled up to the Italian restaurant.
"How did you know there were here?" I asked, confused. Just as she parked, I saw Mike step out of the restaurant door.
"Er..I didn't know. I just saw them here." She said that a little quickly, but I didn't question her. I was still confused.
We got out of her car at the same time.
"Hey, Mike." I said, as I walked over to him.
"Edward!" Mike was surprised to see me. Even Eric showed emotion.
"You know Bella, right?" I said, I had a small smile on my face.
"Hello." She smiled at them.
They were even more surprised now.
"Um...Hi..Bella." Mike stumbled on his words.
I looked at him, and winked.
"We've already eaten, sorry. We thought you weren't going to show." Mike said to me quickly.
"It's okay."
"You should eat something." Bella said quietly, I looked at her, with one eyebrow raised.
I nodded.
"I am a little hungry myself." She smiled
"Maybe you two should go in there together..the food's good." Mike grinned, he winked at me.
Bella looked at me, her perfect eyebrows arched in question.
"Do you mind?" She said.
"Course not. I'm famished." I said with a smile.
"See you on monday." He gave me a meaningful look as he and Eric walked away.
"Come." Bella said quietly, when they were out of earshot. She walked quickly into the restaurant.
I took a deep breath, and followed her in.