Chapter three

Bella POV

The days blurred together, and as a vampire I was used to it. Before I knew it the middle of December was upon us and Edward and I would have a project to do together over the holiday break.

I had tried so hard to stay away from him, and even though I had had stopped following him outside of school and refrained from watching him while he slept, in school I watched the boy like a hawk.

I watched him hold doors open for people, loan his notes to people who missed class, lend lunch money to people that had forgotten theirs, converse with the lunch lady and make her feel appreciated, be polite to people that had been unkind to him, the list went on.

The boy is a saint.

I knew how I was starting to feel about him. I knew because every day I looked forward to lunch and biology. I knew because whenever Emmett or Jasper would make fun of me for it, I could not deny their suspicions.

The boy is gorgeous. Quite possibly the most attractive human I have ever met. I would sit at lunch and in biology and just admire his good looks. The emerald hue of his eyes, the chiseled line of his jaw, the smooth slope of his forehead, the deep furrow in his brow when he was concentrating, the beautiful blush in his cheeks when he caught me staring, his slight muscular build… he was god like in his perfection. He was my own personal Adonis to gawk at.

I wasn't used to having these feelings about men. I had lived as a vampire for 600 years and had not once had a physical relationship. I just did not care. While I was with the Volturi, many male and female vampires had expressed interest, Demitri was relentless in his attempts at seduction, but I just did not have it in me to give myself to someone that I did not love. Though I did not remember my human life, I had a feeling that because of my age, and my lack of a wedding ring, I was a virgin. Perhaps I was still saving myself for true love…

I knew how he felt about me too. He watched me whenever he thought I wasn't looking. He blushed furiously whenever Angela or Tyler hinted that they thought that he liked me, and he even defended me to Mike Newton whenever the jerk would make snide comments about me.

But he was too good for me.

Alice warned me the day before the project would be assigned. It seemed that there was nothing I could do to keep away from Edward. I knew that if I was forced to spend time alone with him, than our attraction to each other would be even more pronounced, and his life would be forfeit.

Alice had kept pestering me about the fact that I wasn't changing his future, only prolonging the inevitable, by trying to stay away. But I couldn't do it.

He didn't deserve this.

Edward POV

YES!

Bella and I were being assigned a project together.

I had been trying to come up with various ways of asking her out for the past few weeks, but every time I came close, I panicked, like the chicken that I was. Now I would have a valid reason to spend time alone with Bella. I would finally be able to get to know her. Maybe find out what it was that made Bella and her family so different from everyone else.

Over the past few weeks I had noticed certain things about them. Though they always purchased lunch, they never ate any of it. I had classes with some of her siblings and I noticed that they always knew the answers to questions, even if they seemed like they weren't paying attention. They were all extremely beautiful and pale, and they all had the same color eyes, gold, with dark purple bruises underneath, like they never slept.

The bell rang and I began gathering my things. Now was as good a time as any to ask her about when we could start working on the project.

"So, Bella, when would you like to get together to work on this?" I asked her, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice.

"Is your house after school ok?" she asked quietly, smiling to herself, while avoiding my eyes. This was good, as I would be able to question her about her strange family today. I couldn't wait.

"Sure. Will you need me to give you a ride home later?" I was hoping she would say yes so I could see where she lived too.
"No, my sister Alice can pick me up." She replied, a little louder.

Oh well, you can't have everything.

"Ok, meet me at my car at 2:30. I have gym so I need to get changed afterwards." I said. My hand grazed the back of her hand as I grabbed my notebook from the table. Her hand was ice cold, and her skin was hard as a rock. But that was not what shocked me about the slight touch, it was the feeling of electricity shooting up my arm and radiating outward through the rest of my body in the moment that I touched her, and it being gone in the next, that made me jump a step backward. I didn't know what the electric shock meant, but now I could add hard, ice cold skin to that list of peculiarities about her.

"Ok. See you later, Edward." She smiled, and then bolted from the room.

"See you."I said as I got up from our table, even though she probably couldn't hear me anymore.

Alice POV

"No, my sister Alice can pick me up." I heard Bella say to Edward.

I looked into the future and saw that I would pick Bella up at exactly 6:02pm. Edward's mother would arrive home at about 5:52, and Bella would only be able to stand the woman's inappropriate suggestions for 15 minutes before Bella would make an inappropriate retort. It would probably be best for me to get there a little earlier, just in case my vision's timing is a little off. I also knew that he was going to question her about us today, but I decided to let Bella find that out on her own.

I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the locker room to get changed for gym. I pondered over my visions the past couple of weeks as I got changed into my required, and hated, t-shirt and gym shorts. Bella was being very clever, prolonging the time when I would finally be able to be friends with Edward. I couldn't wait until he would be a part of our family. I could not see what his gift would be, but I could see myself saying "Wow, that's quite a talent you got there Eddie!" so I knew it was going to be good. I smiled to myself as I walked into the gym and sat on the bleachers, imagining what kinds of gifts he might have, and straining to get another clue from my visions, but nothing came.

Bella POV

I stood out in the parking lot, waiting by Edward's car. Alice bounced towards me and exclaimed, "I'll pick you up at exactly 6:02pm." I tried to suppress a laugh at her exuberance, but failed. Emmett gave me a wink while Rosalie's back was turned, and Jasper sent me a wave of calmness and an encouraging smile. Then they all piled into the jeep and left, and I could hear their laughter at my expense continue for a few minutes as Emmett sped towards the house.

At precisely 2:30 Edward walked out of the gym building, and his eyes met mine.

He walked towards me with a swagger in his step that hadn't been there before. "Hey Bella," he called to me over the sounds of the other student's cars turning on and pulling out of the lot.

"Hi Edward," I greeted him quietly.

He unlocked the doors to his shiny silver Volvo, and I ached to drive my 53' cherry red Chevy that Rosalie had restored for me. We always took Emmett's jeep because it was the only vehicle we owned that we all fit in, and the wasting of finite resources is everyone's business.

I climbed in to the passenger seat and Edward pulled off the moment my door shut.

"What are you?" He asked harshly, as he pulled out of the lot.

"Huh?" I was too dumbfounded by his question and tone to come up with anything better.

"You and your family are never in school on sunny days, your skin is ice cold, you never eat or drink anything……."

He was very observant.

"What do you think I am?" I had let out the question 1/16th of a second before I saw the truck, and heard its driver snoring. I saw the truck's trajectory and before it could smash headfirst into the driver side of Edward's car, I tore Edward from his seat, ripping his seatbelt and probably giving him a nasty case of whiplash. I then pushed my door open, careful not to damage the thing, and jumped out with Edward cradled in my arms. As I pulled him out I heard his head connect with the door and I cringed, hoping he wouldn't have a concussion.

I laid Edward down on the pavement and checked his vitals and he seemed to be ok. There was a bruise forming on his forehead from its collision with the door, but thankfully there was no blood.

"Now I can definitively add fast and strong to the list," Edward murmured groggily, as he reached up and gingerly felt the bruise on his forehead.

"Sshhh." I soothed as he tried to sit up. We were at the intersection of his street and the main road, and so I walked him to his house and let him in with the key under the eave.

"How did…" He began, but then he smiled and shook his head a little before he went over to the couch to lie down. I went into the kitchen and grabbed him an ice pack.

I gave it to him and said, "be right back." I then left his house and walked back to the scene of the accident to talk to the cop.

The Truck driver wasn't hurt, and he kept apologizing to me and asking if Edward was ok.

I told him Edward was fine.

"Do you want to go to the hospital?" the police officer asked me.

"No I'm fine. And I think Edward is just a little shocked," I said. "But not hurt," I added when it looked like he was going to object. The Truck driver ran back over to his truck to get something, and the police officer turned to me.

"Well, you can tell Edward that the mechanic will be giving him a call to let him know when the work will be nearly done on his car. His vehicle isn't totaled, it just needs a new door and front and back side panels. The truck drivers insurance will be taking care of the bill, so he doesn't need to worry about that."

"Thanks for your help, officer…"I glanced at his badge and saw a list of numbers instead of a name.

"Swan, Chief Swan. But you can call me Charlie. You're one of Dr. Cullen's kids, right?"

"Yes sir. It was nice meeting you." I walked away quickly and headed back towards Edward's house.

Swan? Charlie Swan? Surely there were many Swans in the world, and he was not necessarily related to me. One of the only things I could remember from my human life, aside from my mother's face and the eyes of the one that changed me, was my full name. Isabella Marie Swan.

I guess it couldn't hurt to look up Charlie Swan's relatives and ancestors, just out of curiosity.

I let myself back into Edward's house and found him still lying on the couch.

"Do you want to try working on this tomorrow instead?" I asked quietly, trying not to startle him.

"Sure. That's probably best." He replied with his eyes still closed, while he held the icepack to his forehead.

"Ok. I'll just call my sister and have her pick me up now…." I started to pull my cell phone out of my pocket when he shot up on the couch, his eyes wide.

"No. Stay. I have some questions for you."

Damn pixie! Surely she should have seen this.

I wondered for a moment why she had not warned me about this, but then I realized that maybe the truck driver falling asleep was not something that he had planned. She would, however, have seen Edward's decision to question me, and she did not warn me about it. She was going to be in trouble when she picked me up.

"Ok." I answered cautiously. "What do you want to know?"

"Well first I want to say thank you. You saved my life. I don't know how you did it though….."

I sat down next to him on the couch as I explained, "I heard the snoring of the driver as his truck approached. I saw where it would hit your car based on your speed and the truck's speed. At that moment I pulled you from your seat into mine, and pushed my door open to get us out of the car. I'm sorry about your head…" I trailed off.

"It's ok. I should have been crushed by the truck… wait. You said you heard him snoring?"

Oops.

I guess super senses were not something he had observed.

"Yes. I heard him snoring." I replied cautiously.

"What are you?" he repeated his question from just before the accident.

"I can't tell you."

"Can I guess?" He heard the hidden meaning in my statement. No, I could not tell him, but that did not mean that he could not guess. I nodded, and waited patiently while he put his thoughts together.

I watched as the blood drained from his face and his heart rate picked up. I made a mental note to tell my family that we had to step up our game a little in the "act like humans" department.

Instead of voicing his suspicions, however, Edward got up and walked into the kitchen. I followed him and sat in one of the stools at the counter. He began to offer me a glass of water that he had poured, but stopped mid sentence, and took a gulp from the glass instead, probably realizing that there was no point in offering me anything to drink.

"So…how old are you?" he asked, trying to keep his voice casual.

"17." I automatically answered his question.

"How long have you been 17?"And I wondered if I should have checked his bookshelves, to see if Bram Stoker or Anne Rice was there with his other books. Should I be honest? Yes, I decided that it was, after all, the best policy…

"A while."