Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. They are from Twilight and Stephanie Meyer owns them.

Summary: Bella Swan trusts no one and never lets herself care about anyone. When the Cullens come to town, her life gets flipped and twisted, especially with Edward Cullen, who hates her with a passion she doesn't understand. When they learn of each other's secrets and a danger comes to light, who will survive?

Chapter 4: Clashes

You've gotta be kidding me.

After finally settling on the idea that Edward was a ghost, now he just reappears like he's back from the dead? The world must hate me. Or just wanted to mess with my head for the rest of my life.

I found myself watching him cautiously out of the corner of my eye. He had his body seated as far away from me as he possibly could, his face and body turned away from me and was studiously ignoring me. It was almost as bad as the last time I had seen him, except instead of pinning me with his death glare, he was just pretending I didn't exist. The rest of the class was silently going berserk, whispering frantically about him, his sudden return and, of course, how good-looking he was. A few noticed how he was acting towards me, but the others were focused on him more than me. He didn't pay any attention to them either, whether he couldn't hear them or was just doing the same thing he was doing to me I couldn't tell.

A nail dragging back and forth on the teeth of a zipper.

The split ends of a few stands of hair being picked at.

A foot tapping a constant rhythm on the stained classroom floors.

Paper tearing from a notebook.

Class started with another lecture. Evolution this time. We'd already taken the exam on genetics and were moving onto the next chapter. Reviewing Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands, the turtles and finches that he studied, and how his theories had changed as more was discovered. We did learn this in elementary school, didn't we?

Even though I knew this subject top to bottom, I listened. I took notes. I did the activity given to us with perfect precision using the textbook. I didn't talk, only worked. I was a good little student who did everything the teacher wished.

"Now I have an announcement for all of you juniors. The ski field trip is going to be available to sign-up in a few weeks. They decided that we're going to go to Whistler, Canada." The class whispered excitedly, and he waved us all quiet. "I know for a fact that it's going to be for a week in March, so make sure your parents know in case they plan something important in that month."

A part of my brain wondered if I would be allowed to go. Knowing my dad, he'd most likely let me go if I did something for him, like steal or threaten someone important. Not really my thing. But I wanted to ski, snowshoe, embrace nature, forget about my worries in the mountains, and be away from the house where I was always alone. I would ask, but I wouldn't go if the cost was too high, I decided. It was a good enough compromise.

My contemplations on the matter were forgotten when the bell rang. I rose and collected my things swiftly and— "Oof!"

I looked up to find Edward's eyes closed, his jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. "Get out of my way," he hissed trough his teeth, his lips barely moving. And before I had a chance to react, he swept me aside like I was a fly buzzing in his face and disappeared from the classroom in a matter of seconds. I stared at his back the entire way…

And I gave up.

Seriously, I wasn't going to even try to figure out what the hell was wrong with him. I wasn't going to worry or give myself any emotional stress at all. No, I was going to pretend he didn't exist and I was going to be totally Zen about it too.

X

It went on for days like that.

He would do it out of nowhere. Suddenly snap at me, swap my hand away when trying to participate in a lab, criticize me cunningly in any way, shape, or form. It wasn't anything like Mike or Jessica would do; it was truthfully a beautiful way to bully someone. He would never call me horrible names in front of people for popularity and attention. Instead he would insinuate that I hadn't done any of the work on a project, with his proof being his handwriting on the xpaper and me glaring at him as if he was correct, when really he was so revolted by me he hadn't allowed me to write anything. He was a volcano, building up his tension and hatred until it couldn't be contained and without warning would explode in a burst of fiery passion.

Yet despite how much more bullshit I had to go through to maintain my lifestyle at school, I kept my promises. I didn't react to any of these hostile jabs. I just did what I was supposed to do in class, then left without a backward glance. I let no emotion show when I was around him, just a blank mask in place that I'd perfected since I was seven years old. Everybody at school, especially the Populars, was thrilled. Jessica took the fact that Edward detested me on sight as a fact that they were destined to be together. Edward ignored her, but didn't put the same amount of hostility on her that he put on me. It was good enough for her. The Populars tried to integrate into the Cullen's circle and were very unsuccessful, much to my hidden glee.

Another highlight happened after school. I had been staring at the sheets scattered around my living room with scribbled notes on my new extracurricular subject to study when the home phone rang, and my whole world froze. There was only one person that would call the home phone.

These were the moments that I hated and feared the most. The ones I dreaded at all times, even when I was sleeping or content or at my most vulnerable.

Without my consent, my body moved toward the shrilling noise. I so badly wanted to skip to ten minutes from now when I was finished with this conversation, but I knew that there was no way around it.

With shaky hands, my hand gripped the receiver and lifted it to my ear, pressing the answer button on its way. I made sure that my voice was in complete control before I spoke.

"Yes?"

A voice immediately cut to the chase, not bothering with any greetings or any other sentimental bullshit. My father's gruff voice said, "I'm assigning you to supervise a shipping arriving in your area. Tomorrow, 2300 hours. I'll have a car for you to drive in to Seattle. Can you take the address and other info down now?"

"Yes." I was entirely stiff, my posture perfectly straight and my eyes sightlessly staring straight ahead, even though he couldn't see me. I hated how well he had drilled that response to him into me.

"Good. Remember this address." He quickly told me the address, who would be there, a brief description of all of them, who I needed to watch out for, who was loyal to him, and who was easily expendable. I committed every detail to memory, not bothering to write it down and have evidence in the house. When he was done he added, "You're also needed in March. Check-ups and testing. I'll give you details later." March. That was the day of the field trip. It was my perfect opening, and I took it with both hands.

"Speaking of March," I interrupted boldly. "a school ski trip is being scheduled sometime then. I'm hoping that I can get some official time off for that."

There was a brief pause. "You think you deserve a little vacation?"

I chose my words carefully. "I think I've been rather good for the last few months. I'll have the testing done whenever it's needed."

Some more silence before, "You'll do the testing before your little trip. I don't care if you're late or not, and you'll have to get up there on your own. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, and Isabella? Show no mercy tomorrow. I'll know if you don't." And with that he hung up, and free at last, my breath whooshed out on an exhale I didn't even know I was holding.

Needless to say, that conversation had gone better than expected, even though I hadn't really wanted to have the conversation in the first place. I knew I had no choice in going to "supervise" whatever my dad wanted protected. Most likely it was drugs or illegal chemicals. The one thing I hated most about supervising, however, was the people I had to interact with during it. Sick psychos with twisted minds who had no morals whatsoever. They disgusted me. I had to be near the people who in all honestly should not be in this world at all, but in hell.

So to take my mind off of the activities I would need to partake in 24 hours from now, I headed to the library to borrow a book. Absorbing new text usually occupied most of my mind for some time, and it was just what I needed right now. I parked a block away from the entrance and walked over, my eyes scanning the shops next to me, the people walking down the sidewalk. Most of the people out right now were families talking and messing around, friends goofing around and causing trouble, and couples holding hands and whispering nothings into each other's ear. They were oblivious to the horrors that were happening, the evil and the sick and the terror that was occurring while they laughed and loved. They felt a world apart from me, especially after contact with Charles, and I was scrutinizing them from an observation window, not able to interfere or join them. Even they felt the divide, and would make extra steps to make sure they didn't cross paths with me. Then the moment passed and I was walking up the steps of the ancient library, with it's several-decade-old stone walls slowly crumbling as time passed, the rusting iron railing, and the squeaky doors that had been messily wiped for so long you could not see through it clearly. I loved places like these, so old that they reminded you there was a time when there wasn't technology, where there wasn't the mess that human lives were today, but just about survival.

I sneaked off to a quiet section I hadn't looked at before. I had already gone through half of the books in this building, and was close to being done, which was disappointing. It hadn't that been that hard of a feat, since this library was on the small side, but if I wanted more books to read after this, I would have to drive further to another library or bookstore.

I chose one section out of the dozens of shelves and scanned the titles. Guns, Gems, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser, British Royal Marines: Amphibious Division of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy by Bill Scheppler...

"Oh, for God's sake! Having to deal with you in class is torture enough, but is stalking me really necessary?"

I jerked wildly, the unexpected voice making me begin to crouch into a defensive position. Edward had his usual expression of disgust and dislike on his face. His arms were folded and he was leaning back away from me. I slowly straightened, my eyes still wide with surprise. My reaction may have been extreme, but I had never in my life been caught off guard or surprised. I had always known when people were approaching me—my hearing was too sensitive to not detect something like footsteps. But somehow, he had been able to place his feet so carefully I hadn't heard him at all. His scent had not warned me either—the air conditioning vent was right above me, blowing his scent away from me.

"Cat got your tongue?" He mocked.

No matter what state of mind I was in, I always had a witty comeback at my disposal. "Yeah, and he can remove the pole from up your ass too if you like." His expression darkened even further, if that was possible.

"Listen," he said. "I've been rather polite to you in class, I've even let you get away with not doing any of the work in class, so if you could just spare me the grief and move over, it would be really great."

I stared at him again, a few unpolite words just begging to be released from my tongue, but somehow I managed to hold them back. Instead I replied, "Dude, if that's your definition to being nice, I really don't want to know how you act to your family."

"Don't assume anything about me," he warned me.

"No? You don't have only two moods: angry or brooding? Then you must be one of those kids who love to pick on people smaller than them and then at home suck on your thumb cradling the stuffed animal you named Lion when you were three."

"Think whatever you like, but despite what you think, you're not any better than us. Let me guess," his voice turning colder. "you're a freak and a bitch because of several reasons. One, your father's a drunk, as well as acts extremely distant and closed off, and you've never really gotten any love from him. Your mother, on the other hand, is a workaholic, never lets the walls around her heart down, even for you, the reason being that the trust and love she had for her first love was broken and fell apart. You see her rarely, and your parents constantly fight when they're in a room together, whether it was about who was supposed to wash the dishes or drive you to a doctor's appointment. They had married young because they had you accidentally, and they were forced to quit their dreams and higher education. A crack formed in their relationship after that. They divorced, your mother ran off with some other wealthy businessman, and your father was forced to keep you. Now he is as much in your life as your mother was when she was around, and he pretends to work for the police force, when really he's just trying to get away from you!"

The little control I had finally burst and shattered at his words, and I stalked over to him, getting into his face. He could bad mouth me as much as he liked, but my family, especially my mother, was off limits. "You know what?" I seethed. "For the past few days I've been trying so hard to be polite and forgive everything you've ever done or said just to get through the year, but now that I see you don't have any decency or courtesy whatsoever, I'm just going to let whatever happen, happen, and if I end up slamming your head into a toilet and flushing it, then so be it!"

Before I knew it, my back was pressed against the bookshelves and my shoulders were squeezed by strong, cold fingers. "Don't you dare threaten me," he hissed.

"What are you going to do? Kill me? Please, you don't have the balls for it. In fact—"

"Is everything alright over here?" a stern voice asked. The librarian had apparently overheard the argument we were having, and had come to investigate. One look at her face, with heavy bags under her eyes broadcasting the amount of stress she'd taken from rowdy teenagers who didn't care about books and her body tired and bored from the quiet life of a young woman who was stuck as a librarian in a small town, and I knew that she would tell someone about what she had heard and seen. Her having the word get out that I had been arguing with Edward would cause me unwanted attention, and that was not something I wanted, especially if it got back to my father. I had to make her let her guard down, to make her think our encounter wasn't as interesting as it seemed to be. It wasn't going to be very hard to so, since I had practiced manipulating people my entire life, and one simple, nosy librarian was going to be a piece of cake.

I started with a bright smile lighting my face, my body relaxed and open, and immediately her shoulders loosened a fraction, even if she was still a little but wary. To add to the effect, I said soothingly, "Yeah, everything's fine. We were just having a heated discussion on what our Biology teacher wanted for our assignment tomorrow."

Her guard cracked even more at the excuse, but she still put up a fight. "Do you want me to call the school? I know Ms. Cope personally; I could ask her if she could contact him."

That was not something I wanted her to do. I kept my face relaxed not to alarm her. "Oh, no we're fine. The assignment isn't due until next week, and we can just ask him out question tomorrow. Right, Edward?" I placed my hand on his arm. He tensed at the touch and I squeezed my hand in warning. If he screwed this up for me, I was going to drag him out to an abandoned alley and kill him slowly. My thoughts were unnecessary though; he was already speaking to her, and with an even more stunning smile than the one I gave her. "Yes, of course. Thank you for your concern."

For the first time the librarian truly looked at Edward, and she immediately reacted to the sight—her breathing became uneven, beads of perspiration popped up on her forehead and she began trembling. "O-okay. Is...is there anything else you need?"

"Actually, there is something you can help me with," I give him a sharp look. "but first I have to say goodbye to Isabella, I know she much she needs a book right now." His back and his mass of bronze hair was now all the librarian could see, so she couldn't see the mischievousness in his eyes that I knew instantly was not a good sign, especially when I heard those last few words. And I knew I was right when he said, "Thank you so much for that interesting conversation about your parents. Please give them my regards." He bowed his head in farewell, the smugness radiating off of him like heat from the sun.

The audacity to say something so cunning and backstabbing made me speechless. I watched him and the librarian walk away, discussing whatever he suddenly decided he needed from her, even though I was absolutely certain that he could do it himself, and I was overwhelmed with the amount of uncontrollable fury that came over me. He mocked at degraded my mother, he threatened me, and he mentioned it in front of one of the town's ears. I could hear them five rows away, and instead of being professional and staying on task, she was now asking, "I know it probably isn't any of my business, but what about Isabella's family was she telling you about? Everybody in Forks is really concerned about her; she doesn't have any friends or family near her." Oh, yeah they're totally concerned. That's why they tried to hijack my car a couple weeks ago.

"I would tell you, but the only reason she told me was because I'm new in town and didn't know her as well as everybody did here. I really don't want to break that trust." Trust my ass.

"Oh," she said disappointedly. "Well, you really are a very nice guy, keeping her secrets. I'm just really worried. Her father and I used to be friends, and now I don't really see him that much." My teeth clenched. That bitch! She'd never even met my father, and even if she had, they'd never be friends.

Either Edward took her bait, or just wanted to torture me more. "Well, if you're so concerned, then you should at least know that she misses him terribly. Apparently there's a lot of strain in her household, and she's beginning to feel the stress."

"That poor girl! Well, thank you so much for telling me. And I promise, I won't tell anybody else. I know what you just told me is a private thing, and I would never betray Isabella, or you." And with that Edward got whatever book he needed, saying something about it being for his mother, and left.

I was livid, and yet deep down, in the smallest part of my soul, I was impressed. He managed to get a woman completely under his thrall with a few sincere lies, and without a doubt she would do anything for him now, including tell him all of the dirty gossip on me and anyone else in this town. Don't they say you have to admire your enemy if you truly wish to destroy him? So that's what I did. I gave myself this small moment to look at the good qualities of Edward Cullen—his looks, his quick wit, his intelligence—and then I forgot about everything I just thought and set a new goal for myself: to defeat him at his own game. He thought he would slap me a few times and I would just stay down and cower? No, I would not rest until I got what I wanted.

Prepare yourself, Cullen. The game is on.