I skipped school for the rest of the week and for most of the next week. Somehow, I'd managed to convince myself that Edward and the rest of his coven were going to come looking for me and either kill me or make me leave town but, by the time the sun rose on Thursday morning, that thought became less and less of a threat. If they wanted me out then surely they'd have found me already?

But then again, as I keep having to remind myself, he met human me and not vampire me. Despite that, however, I still couldn't shake the feeling that he knew something; there had been something in the way he looked and spoke to me. When he asked me how old I was, it kind of felt as though he was asking me my actual age.

I forced myself to go back to school. Skipping was probably the worst thing I could have done because it was like I'd never started and I was having to relive my first day all over again. Everyone, including Edward and the people he was with, stared at me as I walked through the car park.

Before I left home, this morning, I came to the decision that I should probably come clean to them. They might have rules or customs that I'd have to follow. So I didn't bother with my human façade. That's probably why people are still staring.

Edward was beside me within seconds "welcome back."

"Thanks?"

"You want to talk to us?" he guessed.

I nod "after school?"

"That's perfect" he smiled "I'll give my keys to Emmett and walk with you to my house."

I looked over at his family who were leaning against his car, staring at us. "Which one's Emmett?" I ask.

"The big guy" Edward laughed "the blonde one is Rosalie, Alice is the small one with black hair and, beside her, is Jasper. We would have introduced ourselves properly but you didn't give us a chance."

"Do you introduce yourselves to everyone at this school?" I asked curiously. To the students here, Edward and his family must look like supermodels; completely out of place in a town like this but, then again, I must look the same. A girl who looks like she's just walked out of the front cover of Vogue or something. The only difference is that they're all used to them whereas I've only just arrived.

"No, just to people like us."

"How did you know that I was like you?" I asked, remembering the way he introduced himself last week in biology.

He smiled and just said "I'm gifted too."

Edward hadn't been idle when I was off, he'd somehow managed to get himself transferred into every class I had and so we both walked to first period English together.

"I can read minds" he muttered so quietly that I knew that no one else could hear us "your mind was telling me one thing whereas your body was telling me another. I ploughed through your head for a little bit before I got my answer."

I narrowed my eyes at him "you shouldn't have done that!" I snapped "my head is private!"

"It was only to answer an unanswerable question" he defended himself quickly "it's not like I was going to walk up to you and ask outright."

"Well you could have waited until I was ready to tell you" I reply harshly "now there's no point in my talking to you because you already know everything about me." His curiosity intrigued me; why was he so obsessed with knowing the truth about someone he didn't even know? He couldn't be attracted to me…could he? Of course not, I'd been an anomaly, that's all. A question that needed to be answered and that's all it was.

"I'm sorry" he apologised "but your gift is not one we've ever seen before. How does it work?"

My gift is the ability to return my mortality for brief periods of time. I keep all of my inhuman, immortal gifts, but, just for a while, I'm human again. My heart is beating, blood is flowing through my veins, I can eat, sleep and do whatever else I could do before I was turned but it's not infinite. I can turn it on and off as I please but, if I don't turn it off, it only lasts a few weeks and, in that time, I still don't age.

"I see" he nodded.

I was confused for a moment before I realised that he must have read my thoughts again. "I wish you'd stop doing that" I growled.

"My gift isn't like yours" he replied "I can't turn it on or off. It's just there all the time." He paused for a moment before asking "can you affect other people? Make them mortal or immortal for a time?"

I shrugged "I've never tried."

"Maybe, when you come over later, it's something we can try out."

"Sure, if one of you don't mind being my guinea pig." I stared at him for a moment, taking all of his features in and studying him hard. If my heart was beating right now, I'm pretty sure that it would have exploded. Edward wasn't like the others, not that I knew them, but he took my breath away (figuratively speaking) and then I realised, much too late, that he was probably listening to my thoughts again. My eyes flickered to his face to find him staring at me, his expression completely unreadable but his eyes were holding mine.

"You don't need to worry, Penny; it's not just you." He held my gaze for a moment later before he got up and swept out of the room just as the bell rang.

I spent the rest of the day thinking about Edward Cullen and become confused over the little butterflies in my stomach every time I visualised him. It had been a long time since I'd felt like this and the intensity of it scared me.

The feeling didn't signify a schoolgirl crush, I'd had plenty experience of that feeling, whilst I was younger, to know what that felt like. This, to me, felt like love but it couldn't be. Love takes time to develop, you need to know somebody to fall in love with them; falling in love with a person's looks was not the same as falling in love with a person's personality.

It must be something he's doing; he must have some kind of gift that makes girls fall in love with him. I've seen how the other girls here look at him but then, you can't really blame them, we're made to attract humans so it's easier for us to kill them.

"So you're from England?" A voice behind me asked as I hung my coat up in the biology classroom, my last class of the day. I turned around to see a boy leaning up against a desk. I'd noticed him on my first day, he was one of the many students who spent the entire day staring at me.

I nod, raising my eyebrows at him; annoyed, yet grateful, that he'd pulled me from my thoughts. "what of it?" I ask

"Just that you're the first to come from England to Forks in a very long time" he replied "still, at least you're used to bad weather." He grinned at his lame joke before sticking his hand out "Mike Newton."

"Penny" I reply, shaking his hand for a fraction of a second before letting go.

"Penny" he repeated "I've been wanting to talk to you but you went AWOL after your first day. Is everything ok?"

"Perfect" I lie, a little annoyed that he was poking around in business that had nothing to do with him.

"Ok" he lets out a low sigh before asking "want to sit beside me?"

"Sorry, I've been assigned that seat over there" I nod toward the desk I'd been assigned the week before. It was vacant at the moment but we both knew who sat in the other seat.

"Right" he scowls "well, if you want a change of scenery, let me know."

I nod at him before taking my seat and waiting but Edward never showed and, as soon as Mr Banner walked into the room, I understood why. I stood up quickly and hurried over to him. "I already know my blood type, sir" I told him "and the sight of blood makes me faint so can I-"

"Yes, go" he told me.

Blood typing. Even though I'd learned to control the monster inside me, I still didn't like to tempt fate. I was a little annoyed that Edward hadn't bothered to warn me; so annoyed that I'd decided to just go home but of course that didn't happen.

"Thanks for warning me" I growled as I felt him fall into step beside me.

"I didn't think about it" he replied lightly "I was too busy listening to a very interesting internal battle."

The stupid smirk on his perfect face told me more than I needed to know and I was beyond furious. "You are insolent and I hate you" I snap at him.

"That's the thing though" he chuckled "you don't hate me."

"Screw you, Cullen"

His reply of "you wish!" Irritated me further and I wanted nothing more than to get away from him before I did something I regretted. "Hey, come now" he sighed "I'm sorry. Come on, let's get to mine. The others should be there by now."

It took a little more convincing before I finally agreed. "Just keep your thoughts to yourself" I told him as he took my hand.

"I'm not making any promises" he grinned before he took off running and I had no choice but to follow.