Chapter 4

The whole class turned silent as everyone turned around to stare at me.

Immediately, my hands flew up to cover my mouth in mortification. Edward, rather than being equally disdained at the prospect of being partners with me, started laughing.

Smooth, Bella. Real smooth, I thought to myself. Great first impression. I'm sure Mr. Volturi is going to think you're an amazing student.

"Is there a problem?" Mr. Volturi looked at me over the rim of his glasses.

Just as I opened my mouth to respond with a respectful 'no', about five girls beat me to it.

"I'll be with Edward," they said at the same time, raising their hands. One of them was Emmett's partner.

"C'mon, babe, we can work this out," he tried to reason with her. Her name was Rosalie, I think. She gave him a disgusted look.

Edward gave her a wink.

Gross, I thought. You can have him.

"Switching partners will not be allowed. The lab partner I assigned to you is going to be your lab partner for the entire semester."

I sat back down and pouted silently. Out of all the people why did I have to be partnered with him?

Edward sauntered his way over to me and sat in the seat next to me.

"Looks like we're partners," he waggled his eyebrows up and down.

I groaned, a little too loudly. Surprisingly, despite the distance between us and his age, Mr. Volturi heard me.

He looked in my general direction, and I diverted my eyes quickly.

Edward just laughed.

I hit him in the chest to shut him up, but that hurt my hand more than it hurt him. His chest was insanely hard.

"Shut up! He might look this way!" I hissed under my breath. I discreetly flexed my hand to make sure all my bones were aligned correctly. Sadly, he saw me, which made him laugh even harder. He didn't try to muffle it either. He threw his head back and laughed his freaking ass off. I couldn't help but notice how much more attractive it made him look but quickly cleared the thought from my mind.

"Ms. Swan, Mr. Cullen, is my teaching interrupting your conversation?" I looked down and felt a blush color my cheeks. The first day of school and Edward had already gotten me in trouble. Twice. I could only imagine what the rest of the semester was going to be like.

The rest of class was spent by Mr. Volturi discussing the curriculum for the year and me drawing. When I was younger I loved art and this fascination didn't go away as I got older. I got better and better until now, it was easy. Like breathing. I didn't think about who or what, I just drew. The bell rang and when I examined my sketch, I saw a pair of eyes staring back at me. There was something familiar about them and then I realized whose eyes they were.

No, no, no! First he had invaded my thoughts and now my sketches?! What the hell was wrong with me? I angrily ripped out the sheet of paper and crumpled it up, unceremoniously dropping it into the trash as I walked out of the classroom and headed to my locker.

Reading the combination off of my schedule, I opened it and started to put the books I had gotten today inside.

When I shut it, I was greeted with Edward's face.

"God!" I jumped nearly a foot into the air. I held a hand to my chest to calm my breathing.

"I've been called worse," he said with a smirk.

"What the hell, Edward? Would it kill you to knock?" I said, irritation clouding my brain and causing it to spew out the first words that came into my head.

He raised his eyebrows at me but complied, knocking on metal door of my locker.

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from smiling and that just made him grin wider.

"So, are you following me now?" I asked him.

"Don't flatter yourself, Princess, this is my locker." He gestured to the one next to mine.

I looked at him in disbelief. To prove his statement, he quickly spun the combination and unlocked it.

"No, no, no," I groaned, hitting my head against my locker a few times.

Last year, my friend Angela had been unlucky enough to have her locker next to Edward's. Every day during passing time she'd get a show of him making out with some girl against not only his locker, but hers as well. She had asked him to move time and time again, but to no avail. She had eventually given up. The entire year she had to carry her books around in her backpack. All of them. Now she was known as the hunchback of Forks High. Well, not really. But you get the point.

The big man upstairs must be pissed at me because I was pretty sure the universe was punishing me for something.

"You might wanna be careful, Princess, you're gonna kill some brain cells. I heard blondes don't have that many to begin with." I gave him the middle finger but let the blond joke slide.

"So when are we going to do this thing?" I asked him.

"Do what?"

I waved the packet from Mr. Volturi.

"Just come over later," he said, shutting his locker and swaggering off.


"Wait, so let me get this straight: you joined the eco club? Why?" I hadn't even been aware that our school had an eco club.

"I needed more extracurriculars," Alice shrugged.

"So not only do I have to drive to and from school with Edward everyday, but I have to be alone with him?!"

"Thank your lucky stars, Princess. Do you know how many people would kill to be alone with me?" a voice called from behind.

I rolled my eyes, but ignored it.

"Just on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Don't be so dramatic. You know, if you want, you can join-"

"Uh, thanks, but no thanks," I scrunched up my nose. Don't get me wrong, helping the environment was great and all, but it wasn't for me.

"Okay then," she said, a small smile on her face. It seemed kind of odd considering i just turned her down, but I disregarded it. It was probably nothing.

BEEEP. BEEEP. BEEEEEEEEEEP. A car horn honked. I had no doubt in my mind whose car it was.

"Satan's calling." I sighed. "See you tomorrow."

"See ya!" Giving me a quick hug, she practically skipped back into the school.

I stood there, staring at her. There was something off with her, I just couldn't put my finger on what.

"Are you coming or not? I'm gonna leave you here!" Edward called from the driver seat of his car.

Breathing a heavy sigh, I got into the car.

"Took you long enough," he complained as he peeled out of the parking lot. Not even a minute on the road and we heard the tell-tale bells of an approaching train. The red and white striped bars on the sides of the road came down in front of the tracks just as Edward hit the brakes. The car squealed to a stop, just inches from the bars.

He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. "Awesome," he muttered.

As a freight train rumbled along the tracks, I glared at it. It seemed to go on forever, almost like a magician pulling a handkerchief from his sleeve.

After a few more minutes of watching the Amazing Never-Ending Train, I discreetly started moving my hand in small movements, willing the train to end. Who knew, maybe I had super powers and didn't know it.

"Are you sure you're not supposed to be a blonde? Because if you were, you would totally be living up to your hair color right now. Telekinesis, Princess, really?" He was looking at me like I was crazy, but I could hear the undertone of laugher in his voice.

"Fuck you. And stop calling me that!" I couldn't help but laugh, though. Even I had to admit that was pretty funny.

I heard a gasp at my colorful language and looked out my window to see a woman giving me a hardcore I-am-so-judging-you look from the driver seat of her minivan. I could tell by her pink cardigan and perfectly done hair that she was one of those moms who was part of the school PTA and baked birthday treats for her child's class from scratch because her little Jimmy was allergic to gluten.

To see what had caught my attention, Edward ducked his head a little to look through my window. I could practically see the gears turning in his head and the lightbulb go off when he got an idea. Oh no. I could tell by the mischievous glint in his eye that I wasn't going to like this.

"I can't believe you would use such foul and unladylike language. What would your father say?" Edward reprimanded me loudly enough so the woman would hear. His mouth was turned down in a disapproving frown, but his eyes were twinkling as he shook his head and tsk tsk-ed me.

I glared daggers at him and was about to tell him off, but the lady beat me to it.

"You should listen to your friend, young lady. He seems like a good role model, and from the sound of it, you need one." the woman said in a shrill voice.

The train finally passed and the bars rose.

"I'm glad she's not my daughter," I heard her say to someone next to her before she drove away.

My mouth gaped open in shock.

Keeping his eyes on the road, Edward reached over with his right hand and lifted my chin to close my mouth.

"You might want to close your mouth; you don't want to catch flies." He laughed.

"Shut. Up. And. Drive."