Chapter 4
Bella's POV
I walked out of math, dragging my feet forcing my eyes to focus on the crowded hallway. I felt a warm arm loop through mine a few moments later.
Alice
My mood lifted slightly as she almost skipped along next to me. "Morning Bella" she chirped, I looked over at my best friend, her hair was short and a shade or two darker then my own, it reached to just below her tiny ears and the ends, were flicked out prettily.
She was dressed immaculately too, a black long sleeves peter pan style dress, thick black tights and heels on her small feet. Even with those heels she was shorter than me.
Alice was defiantly built like a pixie.
Everything about her was tiny; except her personality, she was a girl that would talk to anyone and would show great enthusiasm in any task she was given, she always exceeding everyone's expectations too.
One of the many things I love about her
"OH MY GOSH Bella, you will never guess what happened to me in chemistry." She buzzed next to me.
"Urm…" I started to say
"JASPER HALE ASKED ME OUT!" she let out a high pitch squeal that made me wince.
"That's great Alice" I said, trying to be happy for my friend. But I was just so exhausted.
"You're upset, I knew you would be." Her huge grin disappeared.
"No of course I'm not, why would you dating Jasper upset me?" I forced a smile, it was hard work.
We'd reached her locker now; and she was fiddling with the combination.
"Well… Jasper is best friends with Edward Cullen" she looked up at me, watching me, half expecting me to explode or something.
"So? Jaspers never done anything to me has he?" I asked, holding her by the shoulders as tightly as I could manage.
She shook her head and beamed up at me
"Well then." I smiled "Tell me everything"
"eeekkkkkk" she jumped up and down on the spot a few times, clapping her hands, before hugging me.
She slammed her locker door shut and grabbed my hand; we were walking down the hall way again, well more like she was dragging me, I stumbled a few times as we weaved our way around other students.
"I wasn't even expecting it, he just asked me if I was busy Saturday night and I said no and he asked me. It's going to be great…"she continued babbling like this until we had to separate for out next classes.
"Bye Bells, kick some canvas ass" she kissed me on the cheek and bounced off down the hallway.
I turned and walked through the door; Large paintings lined the walls of the brightly lite room, they were mostly Mr Albert's own work, his stuff was good, even sold a couple for over 500 dollors once.
"Ok, take your seats" Mr Albert's voice boomed around the room.
I walked across the room to the work bench I sat at, and stopped dead as I reached it.
In the usually empty seat, Edward Cullen was sitting there, completely immersed in his sketch book.
"You have got to be kidding?" I said loudly, I turned to look towards the front of the classroom; Mr Albert just raised his eyebrows and my and motioned for me to take me seat.
When I turned back to face him, Edward was looking at me now, his green eyes flashing with surprise. He then ran his fingers through his bronze messy hair and grinned at me.
I groaned and took my seat.
"Everyone, Edward will be joining us for the rest of the semester." He said loudly, every face in the room turned their heads to look at him. Their eyes bulging when they saw that he was sitting next to me. They all knew about the history between Edward and me.
I sank down into my seat, sighing loudly.
…
I sat staring, as Mr Albert wrote something on the large white board at the front of the class.
It was a date
"This is your deadline, six weeks from now" the 30 something teacher began addressing the class.
Oh, crap. We were starting out final projects today
Mr Albert sat down on the edge of his desk and pushed his thick, rimmed glasses up his nose, then picked up the baseball cap that was lying upside down on a stack of papers. Inside the hat, there were folded pieces of paper.
I glanced sideways at Edward, he too, was staring straight forward.
"This project is going to take team work ok? So I hope you know the person sitting next to you pretty well, because they are your partners for the entire thing" Mr Albert beamed.
Oh,no,no,no. NO!
I raised my hand
"And no you can't switch partners" he said, looking in my direction.
I lowered my hand, feeling my checks burn slightly
I'dhavetoworkwithhimforsixwholeweeks?
Mr Albert continued
"I want each of you to pick a piece of paper out of this hat" he began walking up the aisles, stopping at each work bench and allowing each student to reach into the hat.
"On each piece of paper is a subject and from that subject, I want you to create a shared piece, combining both of those subjects" he said, the classroom began buzzing with excitement.
I sighed pulling my sketchbook towards me, letting my pencil doodle lazily over the blank page.
"It's going to be worth 60% of your entire grade, so this piece needs to be good"
I let my head sink to desk, feeling the smooth, cool surface against my cheek. I was too tired for this shit.
I was facing away from Edward, watching my hand move as I drew meaningless shapes on the page, I didn't want to look at him at the moment. I was freaking out and I could already see the stupid expression plastered on his face in my head, no need for the real thing right now.
Or I might end up punching him again
After a few seconds I heard Edward shift slightly in his seat
"Bella" he said in a low hiss
I ignored him
"Sit up" he tugged hard on my elbow, anger spilled over me.
I shot up
"Get off me" I shrugged my arm away from his grip, about to curse him but before I could, Mr Albert appeared at the end of the table
I bit my tongue and reached into the baseball hat and unfolded the piece of paper.
"Human emotion?" I looked up at him, but all he did was nod.
Edwards did the same, I watched as he unfolded the piece of paper.
Mr Albert smiled at us then continued down the aisle.
My eyes were on Edward again, he gave a short laugh, and then screwed up the piece of paper into a small ball, dropping it onto the pages of his sketch book.
I moved my hand over and picked up the ball and gently smoothed it out
"The weather?" I held out the bit of paper and Edward snatched it out of my hands
"Will you relax" I warned, I said through gritted teeth, louder than I intended
I looked towards the front again, and saw that everyone else had stopped what they were doing and were watching us.
Edward noticed too but didn't move.
"Right, everyone's got their subject, so start brain storming potential ideas." Mr Albert clapped his hands and rubbed then together enthusiastically.
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair.
I hate it when people look at me
"People just love watching others fight, especially us, it seems."
I didn't look at Edward as he spoke, the sarcasm I picked up from his tone made my hands ball into fists
"Could we just…not" my breathing became heavy and I knew if he didn't stop talking to me, I would do something that I would regret
Or not
"Why? Someone getting, angry?" he teased
I wanted sooo bad to rub his face into the pages of his sketch book
"You need to F-" I was about to tell him what to do when Mr Albert called mine and Edwards name
"Can I see you two outside for a moment?" he was standing by the door.
Crap
I got to my feet and felt every pair of eyes follow us to the door.
Mr Albert began talking as soon as we walked into the empty hallway
"Look guys, I know what happened between you. But you've gota let it go, your personal crap, will not get in the way of my teaching, ok? You two have just got to work together"
I rolled me eyes, Mr Albert eyeballed me.
"And if you can't, I will fail you both, and you two need this class right?
I nodded slowly
"I won't say this to you again, anymore shit and your both out, got it?"
I looked at Edward
"Yes sir" was all he said
I couldn't speak at all, my throat was so dry. So I nodded again
"Good. You never know you two might create something amazing"
I assumed he was done telling us that there was no changing this because he then started to walk back into the classroom, me and Edward followed and found our seats again.
I picked up my pencil and wrote the theme id been given at the top of a new page and stared blankly down at the words
"We should do as he says" Edward almost whispered to me, I looked up and saw that he was sitting incredibly close. His body turned towards me, his face even closer than his body, his green eyes searching mine
I felt my face burn
"Oh yeah?" I breathed, realizing my breathing was now uneven.
"Yeah" I felt his eyes move over my features and I saw a smile appear at the corners of his mouth, but it was one I'd never seen before. My heart rate thudded in my ears.
GetagripBella,he'stryingtotrickyouwithhisruggedgoodlooks.Don'tfallforit!The voice in my head warned me. I took a deep breath and tried to focus. But I found myself stuck, I couldn't move, I forced my eyes to blink and when I opened then again the smile was gone and Edwards's usual stupid expression was back.
"The sooner we get this over with the better; I will not fail this class because you can't control your self"
I laughed lazily "this coming form someone who threw a can of green paint over me only a few weeks ago"
"Well you deserved it" he mumbled.
"I deserved it? You are such an ass" I turned my body away from him as much as I could.
"Yes you deserved it, stealing my clothes from the boy's locker room and throwing them in the front courtyard was not a smart thing to do."
"Well you deserved it" I used his own words.
"I'm sure I did" he said sarcastically.
I huffed. Neither of us spoke for a few minutes.
"This is not going to work." I went to get up from my stool and try and reason with Mr Albert. But Edward lightly touched my arm.
"For god sake, can you just sit down for a second?" he pleaded. I looked at him for a long moment then slowly sat back down, shrugging away from his arm.
"Meet me at the fountain, in the town square tomorrow after school" his voice was smooth.
I sighed, my breathing hitching when I looked at his face, his eyes boring into my own. I blinked trying to clear the haze that had suddenly appeared in my mind. I heard Angela laugh loudly at something Ben had said and saw Edwards eyes flash to the two sat at the table in front of us."Fine" I Rolled me eyes.
He cleared his throat and turned away from me.
He looked at me from the corner of his eye, the smile gone
"If you keep me waiting I'm gone" he said this loud, making sure the people close to us heard him.
My senses caught up with me then and I picked up my pencil, frowning down at the blank page
"Fine" I shrugged.
We didn't breathe another word to each other for the rest of the hour.
