A.N.: Thanks so much for the reviews! I really appreciate them. Sorry it took me so long to update, I've been lazy. xD;;

Jake Caldefore; Haha. Well, I'm just going to have to prove you wrong, won't I?

psych926; You know, I haven't even thought about that. But I guess that would explain it, wouldn't it? Thanks. xD (I'm such a good writer. Everything's thought out so well.)

Oh, also, I mentioned in the author's note from Chapter One that I would try to divide evenly between Edward's point of view and Bella's. Now, though, I've decided that I would write all of 'present day' in Bella's point of view, and 'Nine Years Before in Edward's point of view. I think that would be enough of both, and it would be easier for me anyways.

Chapter Two: Denial

Nothing is impossible to a valiant heart. -Jeanne D'Albret

BPOV

The hair, the face… and, most of all, the eyes: they were his. But I knew it wasn't him. It couldn't be, because that would be impossible.

And yet, I could move my eyes away from his, and, apparently, neither could he. Even in our distance, I could read surprise, incredulity, and something else not so easily defined in his eyes.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I unwillingly and painfully tore my eyes away. It was Jessica, a girl that sat next to me in Trigonometry.

"Hey, Bella, do you want sit with us for lunch?" She asked and started pulling me towards her table without waiting for a response. I looked back at his table, and he was talking to his siblings. Perfectly normal, like some wondrous wordless communication hadn't just passed through us in this seemingly mundane setting.

"So, Bella," a guy with blond hair was the first on to speak up among the eyes that were watching me. I sat down in the seat indicated to me by Jessica. "I'm Mike. How do you like Forks High?"

"It's fine," I mumbled, not sure and not caring if they had heard me.

"So your dad's the chief, huh?" Mike pressed on. I nodded, and kept my face down. "I hope we have some classes together. Don't you?" He asked again, apparently intent on making some sort of conversation. I bit my lip and nodded again.

Instead of staying quiet again and possibly squandering my first and potentially last chance to make some friends, I decided to comply and talk to the people around the table. But I couldn't think of something to say. I'd never really tried to fit in before, and my past experiences gave me nothing to work with.

"Um," I started, and Mike brightened. "Who are they?" I pointed to the group where I had seen the boy who looked mysteriously like someone I had met years ago.

Mike seemed less excited that I wanted to talk about someone else, but he answered with slightly overwhelming enthusiasm anyway. "Those are the Cullens," he explained. My sick heart suddenly felt heavier, because that wasn't his name. But did I really believed it would be? But I still couldn't quite shake the feeling that I had heard that name somewhere, even if it wasn't his.

Mike continued. "Those are Alice, Rosalie, Jasper, Emmett…" More pangs of recognition, almost like deja vu. But where had I heard those names before, and why did only some of the names strike me as familiar?

"And Edward."

Then, without my permission, hope rekindled.

I didn't want to seem strange or obsessive, so I let the subject of the Cullens go, and the group talked about some other inconsequential topic I didn't really care about. Lunch ended quickly, and I walked out of the cafeteria with undeniable relief.

I looked down at my schedule. I had Biology next. I'd better hurry up if I didn't want to get lost and being late again…

I finally located the Biology building, knowing I was late. I inwardly cursed myself, because now I'd have to walk into the room while the teacher was talking and draw even more attention to myself.

The door creaked open. The teacher, a grumpy looking middle-aged man with a receding hairline looked at me unhappily. "Class started 5 minutes ago. Need I remind you that tardiness will not be tolerated in my classroom?"

"Uh, I'm sorry, sir," I stuttered, and some of the kids in the room snickered. "I'm new, and I couldn't find the classroom."

The teacher looked slightly appeased. "Oh. You must be Isabella Swan." I nodded. "I'm Mr. Banner, why do you go take a seat over there." He pointed to the only empty seat in the room. And, of all the people in the world, the one to sit next to me had to be the Edward Mike had pointed out earlier.

I nervously stumbled to the table. I was nearly there when I tripped over something on the ground and knocked into another girl's table. I apologized, feeling the blush creeping steadily into my face, while the girl giggled and Mr. Banner shot me another annoyed look for disrupting his class once more.

I tried to walk as fast as I could into my seat without tripping again, but then I stopped dead in my tracks when I glanced up at my lab partner.

Edward Cullen was glaring at me with the most intense hatred I've ever known. I would not have known such a strong reaction existed if I had not seen it myself. And it was directed at me.

Suddenly, I realized I was standing in the middle of the classroom and a lot of people were probably staring at me, wondering how crazy the new girl really was. There goes my chance at a normal high school life, I thought. I felt a bit of anger flare up at this Edward Cullen. I gritted my teeth and sat down, trying to not care about him and what he was thinking.

I tried to focus on the lesson, and when that didn't work, I tried to at least not think about Edward. I fanned out my hair to create a make-shift barrier between us, hoping in vain that his furious expression would stop popping into my head, unnerving me.

But I could not stop myself from glancing at the person sitting next to me every so often. He seemed to be intently listening to Mr. Banner's lesson, but the way his jaw was set and his fists clenched so hard I could see his tendons standing out from where I was sitting, told me that this was not his usual behavior.

I didn't know what I had done to make him hate me so much. More of that inexplicable anger swelled up inside me, and, even if I wasn't sure of anything else in my life, I did know one thing for sure.

This was not my Edward.

omnomnomnomnomnomnom

(The divider symbolizes the time change. xD We are now talking about 9 years ago.)

EPOV

The drive to the hospital was as quiet as ever, the forever relentless rain lashing onto the windshield. The sound of rain on glass was calming somehow, a lullaby that seemed to follow me wherever I go, disregarding the fact that we were actually looking for it.

I pulled into my designated parking spot, and went up the stairs to find Carlisle. He told me to come see him at the hospital yesterday and hadn't told me why, but from his thought's I'd concluded that he needed help with the overwhelming number of new patients at the hospital.

I walked into the front lobby.

"Edward!" The receptionist, a middle-aged woman with graying hair, never failed to receive me unnaturally warmly. She straightened out her uniform. He looks as good as ever. Oh, just look at the way he looks at me. He wants me so bad, but he knows he's too young. Oh, such tragic souls we are!

Slightly nauseating, but I disregarded it. "Hello, Margaret." I forced the warmest smile I could. She seemed dazed. Maybe no one would care about the age difference… she mused in her mind.

"Do you know where I could find Dr. Cullen?" I asked, uncomfortable.

"Uh huh," she nodded, a spacey look still in her eyes. "He's in room 443, tending to a patient."

"Thank you," I smiled and waked away as quickly as I could, still hearing her deluded fantasies behind me.

The number plate said 443, and I pushed the door open quietly and walked in. Carlisle was telling a nurse when to change the IV when he saw me coming in.

"Edward," he smiled. The nurse looked slightly pink in the face, and I doubted she heard a word of what my father had said. "Wait for me in my office, would you?" Carlisle asked, and I nodded and left.

I walked down the corridor, hearing the thoughts of patients and visitors. One reason I disliked the hospitals were the thoughts that swirled around, filled with sadness and hopelessness. And pain. I could feel the pain of the patients through their mind, and that only added to my avoidance of the hospital. Jasper says he could sympathize; he always gets depressed in such places.

I sat down in the visitor's seat in Carlisle's office, and he joined me not much later.

"Edward," he began, "you, for one, probably knows the stress I've been feeling lately, and you probably already know I wanted you to help me out." I smiled, and nodded. He smiled as well, and went on. "There's one particular patient. If you could take her off my hands, I'm sure it would make my day a lot easier."

I raised an eyebrow. I could see the girl in Carlisle's mind. Her name was Isabella, and she had a heart disease. Evidently, she seemed quite… spirited, and was not always up for staying in her room at all times. I laughed at a particular instance that Carlisle was grimacing at.

"Sure, Carlisle. This Isabella, I'll see what I can do."

Carlisle smiled. "Thanks, Edward." He paused and continued. "I hope you know what you've just gotten yourself into."

A.N. The reason why Bella didn't think Edward's name was Cullen was because he went by Edward Mason then. :) And she doesn't know where she had heard the names before because she was 8 and doesn't remember everything. She also says that only some of the names struck her as familiar, and that's because Jasper and Alice hadn't found the Cullens yet. Just pretend, please. xD Alice and Jasper actually came to the Cullens in 1950, but, like I said, pretend. I'm sure this won't be the last plot hole I'll try to cover up.

Ugh. I really hate how it's so hard to edit your stories on FF. D:

Sorry, sorry, I made some really bad mistakes in this chapter (pointedly, the second-to-last paragraph in Bella's Point of View, where I wrote 'didn't' instead of 'did' and that made the entire thing really confusing), so I had to edit and re-post it. Ugh, I HATE YOU FF. LET ME EDIT MY FREAKING CHAAAPTERS. -kicks computer-

Review, please! Reviews make me haaaappy.