Chapter 3: Edward's Return

"Edward's back!" I heard Alice's voice and ran to the front door to greet him. The rest of the family came too. Edward got out of his car and walked towards us, half smiling.

"Welcome back son." Carlisle said.

"You're thirsty! When was the last time you hunted?" Esme asked him and I sighed.

Welcome back…just don't leave like that again. It wasn't the same here without you, Edward. I directed my thought to him, too proud to admit that aloud. Why he had to leave in the first place, I still wasn't sure.

Carlisle and Esme insisted that he hunt that night, to prepare him for school the next day, and I could tell that he didn't particularly feel like it, but in the end he couldn't argue with them, and ran out of the house to hunt.

Once again, school the next day was its normal, boring self. The boys had dripping hair as we walked into the cafeteria at lunch and Alice and I couldn't help but laugh along with them – the high spirits was catchy among the family. In my peripheral vision I saw Bella looking at us as usual, but I didn't look at her. Emmett shook his hair and Alice and I leaned away from him. It was bright and happy again, now that Edward had returned.

I saw Edward's eyes flash towards her and I remembered what Alice had said the first night Edward had left…about him liking her. I was starting to feel slightly angry again, but I suppressed it for Jasper's sake. I sighed secretly, not wanting my family to know, but, of course, Edward would know. I knew he blocked our thoughts out of courtesy, but I also knew that there was only so much he could block. Eventually the lunch hour ended and we headed off to class. Alice and Jasper headed to the same class, while I headed off to trig with Emmett, who seemed thoroughly bored with the prospect of dealing with Mr. Varner again. Edward headed off to his biology class, where I knew he would be with Bella.

"Hey Rose? Why don't we ditch trig? Why do we have to deal with Mr. Varner again?" Emmett asked me softly so the humans wouldn't hear us.

"Emmett, just deal with it…I know we've dealt with him for almost a semester now, we really shouldn't skip it. I promise that we'll go hunting straight after school." I said and he grinned, now suddenly eager to get to class. But I knew he was just eager for class to end so we could go home, or in our case, hunting.

Class ended and Emmett and I walked casually among the mass of students wanting to leave school, and when we were finally out of the school buildings, we took Emmett's jeep home, where we dropped it off, before running out into the forest to hunt.

We arrived back home and decided to get our homework over with. We'd done this so many times that all I had to do was to look at the question and the answer would automatically come to me.

Finishing all the set homework within five minutes of starting, Emmett decided that pouncing on me was a good idea. I sighed as he growled playfully.

"Before you break any furniture, take it outside you two, please." Esme told us and Emmett pouted briefly at her as he and I ran outside into the drizzle.

AN: next up is the car accident where Edward nearly exposes the Cullens! Keep reading and reviewing!