Perk #2: Angela Gets a 4.0 GPA

As if she were biting into a big tasty cheeseburger, the blonde sunk her teeth into my arm. Her teeth sliced through my flesh like paper. It was pure agony. I tried to breathe, to scream for help. It was like the wind was knocked right out of me - no sound came out. I tried to pull my arm away from her and couldn't. Her grip was like iron. I struggled to escape with no results.

I was royally screwed. Her teeth sent a burning sensation up my arm as I belted out a hoarse cry of agony.

Ridiculously, my mind replayed the memory of having my wisdom teeth removed. The oral surgeon came in, squeezed the anesthetic into the IV and my arm started to tingle in discomfort. In seconds the discomfort traveled to the rest of my upper body, a bitter taste reached my mouth, then…darkness. Darkness was all I was praying for now. I wanted the pain to disappear.

I knew I was dying, whatever this weirdo woman was doing and going to do to me. I really was going to die before I got to kiss Edward – and I was going to die a virgin. I raged inside at the unfairness of it all.

At least, I thought randomly, Angela will be guaranteed a 4.0 this semester. Don't they do that for students whose roommates die? Or is that only if they commit suicide in the dorm room? That was one positive thing out of this. Angela could use the help in her math class…

My deranged thoughts were interrupted by growls. Noisy and angry. I was too weak to move to see what was going on, but it was enough to stop my murderer in her tracks. She swiftly stepped away from me, out of sight.

"Help." I whimpered. What else was I supposed to say? If there was something (that sounded beastly and cranky) terrifying enough to scare off the creature that ran faster than Superman out there, what do you do? Plus, you have to understand, the pain I was in was keeping me from sensible thought. There's no way to describe it. There's nothing more physically painful on Earth than vampire venom pumping through your veins.

That's right, she's a vampire. Didn't surprise you did it? I thought it was rather obvious.

Anyway, I laid there whimpering in agony like a dying puppy. Yes, it was as sad as a dying puppy. Though, I was far more gruesome than a puppy. I was bleeding everywhere, my black dress soaking up blood. The curls in my hair Angela and I had worked so hard on were in a tangle around my face. I looked like a chick from a C-grade horror movie, only…you know, real.

I vaguely listened to sounds similar to the car crash I'd recently experienced: ripping metal. I quivered fearfully. The beasts were yipping happily, perhaps they'd successfully taken down the blonde. Was I next?

"Please...somebody help!" I croaked as loud as I could. I rolled over onto my stomach, pain shooting up my arms, I started crawling away. "Help!" I tried again. I heard a strange choking. It was me, sobbing hysterically.

"Bella?" A disbelieving voice came from behind me.

"Dear god. I'm already dead," I moaned, collapsing into the grass. I didn't know what else to think. If someone is magically behind you, calling your name, shouldn't that mean you're dead? On your way to face judgment or something? Why hadn't the pain ended then? I wasn't the church type, perhaps I was in Hell.

"Sam - it's Bella. Oh, god. Do you think she's been bitten?" The same voice had come nearer to me. Then, the owner of the voice clicked. Jacob Black. Why would I be hearing Jacob Black in the after life? He was still alive last I checked. I remembered his awkward crush on me…Maybe I'd gone to the wrong afterlife.

"Jake?" I gasped, forcing out the words through the pain.

"Bells…shit, you okay?" I tilted my head up to see him. Still freaking huge as ever.

No. I was not okay. I was just in a car wreck, dumbass, and then, this crazy blonde lady carries me away and bites me! I wanted to say to him, but I was too weak.

"Look at her arm, Jacob." Another voice. Who was that? I tried to remember to the few times I'd hung out at La Push back in high school. Sam…somebody. I groaned in agony at the effort thinking was taking.

"What do we do?" Jacob asked. He sounded desperate.

I was in awe. Shouldn't the answer be obvious? Get me to a hospital, pronto! I didn't know I was slowly turning into an immortal. I thought the hospital could patch me up.

"Put her out of her misery before she becomes one of them." A different voice. Paul. That jerk, he never liked me.

"No!" Jacob growled. "There might be some way to…stop it."

"I'd say try the suck and spit method, but the venom's poisonous to us," Sam said thoughtfully.

By this point, I was pretty sure I was dying. I had to do something. "Hospital," I panted out to the bunch of idiots standing around me.

"Bells, the hospital will be no good to you now," Jacob said gently. He did rip some fabric from his shorts and wrap it around my gushing arms. Minimal medical care, I thought. Jacob probably never took first aid.

"I don't…want to die," I whispered. I looked into his big brown eyes. I knew how I must look. My ravaged body, face scrunched in pain, not exactly at my cutest. Cute is what gets Jacob Black do to things, I've learned. I tried to jut my bottom lip out pitifully.

"I don't want you to die either. I also," Jacob said determinedly, "Don't want you to turn into a vampire."

That one was new. Was he joking? I wondered. I paused for reflection. This would explain the whole biting blonde woman thing. My hospital idea burned up in flames. I'm sure the hospital doesn't carry anti-vampire venom in their stocks.

"We should finish her now, before she changes." Paul again. I wanted to slap him.

"No! There has to be another way," Jacob said firmly. My opinion of Jacob Black was soaring.

"Jacob, she's turning into a monster." Another voice reasoned. Good lord, was all of La Push out here? That sounded like Embry. I'd always had the notion he liked me. What a schmuck he turned out to be.

Jacob fought my case. "Think of Charlie, what will it do to him if Bella dies?"

"What will it do to him if she turns into a bloodsucker?"

"She could be like the Cullens. They could teach her to be like them," Jacob said optimistically.

Who the hell were the Cullens? It seemed familiar…

"The Cullens left a year ago, how do you suppose we find them? Besides you hate the Cullens."

Jacob's voice grew strained. "Well, we could teach her. We can handle one little vampire."

"I'm not teaching no bloodsucker." Yet another voice. I got fed up and struggled to look up and see what half of La Push had showed up. The one who had spoken was Jared. I also saw Quil. What were they doing out here near Olympia? In the woods. Shirtless. Where had those beastly monsters gone? I had too many questions.

"I'll teach her," Jacob insisted. I was liking him more and more. My hero, Jacob Black.

It sounded reasonable to me, but Sam continued to argue. "Jake, you can't honestly want Bella to be leech. She won't be human anymore."

"It's better than killing her ourselves!" he shouted. "It shouldn't end this way. Not like this. Not for her."

"Jake, she might rather be dead than be a vampire." Quil, this time, said. Looks like they all wanted to put in a word on my fate.

I muffled a scream of pain that was bubbling up from within me. I imagine that wouldn't have done well for my case.

"Don't…wanna die," I huffed out through my sobs of pain.

"See?" Jake said.

"She doesn't understand, Jake." Sam again. Why did he try and sound so smart? I don't want to die, how much clearer can I get?

Jacob charged on. "You aren't going to kill her without killing me first. I won't let you."

Wow. Jacob is one hell of a good guy. I tried to tell him thank you and only managed a gurgling sound.

I heard five sighs of defeat in reaction to Jacob's claim.

My fate as a vampire was set.

Still confused about why I was in pain, trying to understand the whole vampire thing, I recalled someone more important than anything in the world.

"Edward!" I shouted. Energy suddenly burst through me. "Edward, he's st-still in the car. He doesn't know…"

"You weren't alone in the car?" Sam asked sharply.

"No, he was d-driving," I sputtered. It is surprisingly difficult to talk when you're transforming slowly into a vampire. Ouch.

"That's right!" Jacob said excitedly, "Bella drives my dad's old truck. That totaled car was no truck."

"Jared, Paul, run and see if there's still someone there," Sam ordered. "We didn't see anyone before, but maybe the leech's scent distracted us…"

Relieved that they were going to check on Edward, I focused back on my pain alone for several minutes. Jared and Paul returned quickly.

"He wasn't there. No signs of the police either," Jared reported.

My eyes widened. Edward was gone?

"You think there was another bloodsucker working with this one?" Quil asked. His voice was coated with anticipation. I had no idea what for.

"Probably. I smelled another one…maybe more than one," Jared answered.

Edward? Attacked by a vampire, too? I started sobbing louder, not just from the physical pain anymore. Edward would probably not be as lucky as I had been. He was probably dead already. The knowledge hurt me more than the vampire venom.

"It's a sick set up it had, Bells," Jake said to me softly, stroking my hair. "It causes car accidents to trap its victims. It's been going on for awhile. That's why we were here. It's too close to La Push. We had to do something." I wondered what a bunch of young guys from La Push thought they could do against a vampire…then again, the vampire had - err – disappeared.

"It took us awhile to catch on that it was a vampire doing it. There had been a total of seven crashes near Olympia where the driver and other victims were found completely bled out. It was suspicious enough that it was highlighted in the news. Otherwise, we wouldn't have known to suspect a vampire."

I waited for him to explain more. It was distracting me a tiny bit from the burning pain spreading throughout my body and the thought that Edward…I stopped myself from going that far.

"You're lucky we came across you soon enough. We were near enough to actually hear the sounds of the crash. We saw the ripped door in the grass and knew the leech wasn't far off." He was quiet for some time. "I'm sorry we weren't fast enough to save you."

I doubted that he was as sorry as I was. I have no pain tolerance. As much of a klutz as I am, this had no comparison to all my past shenanigans.

Lying on the forest floor, the misery began to consume me. Physical pain, emotional pain. I had no idea what the future held for me.

At some point, Jacob hoisted me up into his arms. I was taken to his Rabbit and deposited in the front seat. The other La Push boys piled into another car. I didn't know it was because they had an aversion to being near me.

"What am I getting myself into?" Jacob muttered to himself as he started the car.

I wanted to tell him that I was just as clueless as he, I truly did. There was only one minor obstacle: a blinding burning sensation that made it hard to breath, much less talk.

Jacob talked to me all the way back to La Push. Rambling about what vampires were, that he was a werewolf designed to kill them. 90% of it went in one ear and out the other, but I got the gist. The world at large was not what I had previously knew it to be.

At his house, Billy, apparently pre-warned by the others, was sitting in his wheelchair ominously. He glared at me. I sure was losing friends fast. I wonder what my dad would think of Billy treating me in such a way.

"You're keeping her in the garage," he hissed.

I wanted to laugh. It was like Jacob was bringing home an unwanted pet. From what I had learned, out of Jake and me, he was the one closest to a pet – the werewolf.

Jacob left me in his car for awhile. I lay there, trying not to scream. I might have been in an enormous amount of pain, yet I didn't want to inflict it on others.

He was gone long enough that I worried he wasn't coming back for me, that I was meant to stay in his car. Alone. The alone part was more important. I wasn't the type to be scared, typically. It embarrassed me how badly I was at that moment.

When Jacob returned, he was dragging a lumpy mattress and blankets. I suspect the hold up might have been Jacob arguing with Billy about me.

"It's not much, Bells, but it's better than the seats of the Rabbit." He flashed me one of his contagious grins. Apparently, I had grown immune to them in the midst of my transformation into a vampire. I hope he didn't think I was being rude.

He made my bed and carried me to it. Under normal circumstances, this entire situation would have mortified me. Even under abnormal circumstances, I was still mortified. Sleeping in the garage like an unwanted dog, smearing blood in Jacob's back seat, and being bitten by a vampire. I was exhausted. I wanted to sleep.

Too bad I'd lost that ability when that blonde bitch bit me.

I smothered a whine and braced myself for the inevitable.

*

Author's Note: I'm sure you're all hating on Jacob right now, but seriously – they are going to be completely platonic. I hated Jacob coming in a trying to steal Bella in the books.

I want some reviews! If you don't review…I'll stop posting before the sex even happens! And yes, it's Bella/Edward sex. So, ha!

:-p