A/N: Thank you so much for your wonderful reviews, I appreciate them soo much. I enjoyed reading each and every single one. Also, the reason Bella doesn't want anyone to know about her abuse, is because she never really had a good foster experience, or a good experience about being treated right. On some level, she believes this is a crazy family, but she also believes this is something she has to deal with alone. She's always had to rely on herself and she's never been able to have someone help her before.
Philip Coleman's POV
I was sitting at my desk, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when a boy walked through my office door. It was new, and the bright brass name plate still shone brightly.
I was very excited about this, it was my first job and I was sure this was an improvement from my auditing job in Seattle, despite what my mother said.
The boy was clearly used to being labeled a troublemaker. His black shirt and backwards hat, plus the baggy jeans that showed about three inches of his boxer shorts. Oh yes, he was definitely misunderstood.
"Good morning Mr. Cullen. I thought you decided not to come today."
He smirked. "Had to go to the library, I had a research paper due."
"Ah yes," I sighed, "I still remember the good ole high school days. Have you been working on it hard?"
He lay down on the half couch, resting the back of his head on his hands.
"Not particularly."
"Oh." Obviously, he was a reserved child.
There was a pregnant pause.
"So, I'm Philip Coleman, the new psychologist for Forks High. Mrs. Sherri unfortunately had to leave the position, so I'm the permanent replacement."
His mouth twitched when I mentioned the former psychologist.
"Did you know Mrs. Sherri, Edward?"
He held an intriguing look in his eyes. "Nope, I didn't know her. Just curious Doc, did they tell you the reason that she left?" The gleam held steady.
"They said that she was on maternity leave and decided to become a full time mother, and you can call me Doctor Coleman Edward."
"Oh, that was smart of them." There was definitely a trace of humor in his tone. I wrote that down on my pad, I needed to delve further into the relationship Edward had with the former psychologist.
"Would you like to tell me a little about yourself Edward?"
He diligently observed the ceiling.
"I really want you to make an effort at this Edward."
Silence.
"Remember, anything said in this room, stays in this room. Everything is completely confidential." That would draw him in.
"Why is it confidential?"
"Because, that gives you a sense of security to feel free to say anything you wish at all."
"Maybe I don't want this to be confidential; is that just to protect your rights?"
"No, Edward, it's not just for my righ-"
"I'm not sure I feel comfortable not being able to repeat what happens in here."
I gave him a level gaze.
"Fine we won't have confidentiality."
"Are you crazy, what kind of a psychologist are you? You can't tell anyone what I say; you're bound by the law. Are you trying to take away my rights?"
I dropped my head in my hands.
"Okay Edward, how about this, you can tell anyone you want what happens in here, but I won't tell a soul."
"Not even your wife?"
I shifted uncomfortably.
"Doctor Phil, do you even have a wife?"
"Today is not about me, let's focus on you Edward."
"Do you live with your mother Doctor Phil?"
He looked as if he had just been given a pot of candy.
"My life is not on trial now Edward-"
"Oh so it's my life on trial? That makes me feel real good about this whole situation."
Unable to help myself, I rolled my eyes.
"Let's just move along with the session."
"Doctor Phil?"
"Hmm?"
"Is this your first job as a psycho—I mean psychologist?"
"Yes," I ground out.
There was that infuriating smirk again. "Were you an accountant?"
Edward's POV
I could see the irritation and disbelief on his face, and I knew I'd hit close to the mark. He was obviously having a midlife crisis and had decided to go to a whole new position. You would have to be insane or on the brink of a crisis to pick a job like this.
He'd probably just finished his training courses. Well, I'd just have to introduce him properly to the world of the emotionally challenged teenagers he'd just plunged into, both feet first.
"You know Doc; I had an enlightenment, that's why I decided to make this meeting."
"Oh really, an enlightenment, would you like to tell me about it?"
I shrugged, appearing not to care. "Sure, why not? Okay, so I was at home drinking—I mean thinking, and I remembered that Wendy's commercial. You know the one with the guy with the red hair?"
He nodded.
"Well, anyways, I saw myself as him, and just when all the people were running into the black hole, I stopped and I was like, wait a minute, this isn't right, I deserve a hot juicy burger. I just wanted to know what that meant."
He sat there, completely entranced as I told him this completely ridiculous story. He was too easy.
"Well Edward, do you think that instead of a juicy burger, your burger could represent a better life?"
I pretended to think about it for a moment.
"No, I'm pretty sure I meant a burger, drinking—I mean thinking makes me really hungry."
"Oh."
It was time to move on to faze two.
"Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Well, yeah," I put in, saying it sheepishly and looking away.
"What's wrong Edward, you can talk to me about anything."
"It's just . . . is there such a thing as being too stressed out?"
He looked delighted with this change of events.
"Why certainly Edward, it's absolutely a reality for many people. Tell me, why do you feel stressed out?"
"Well," I sighed dramatically, "I'm a peer leader, peer mediator, camp counselor, football quarterback, I have a part-time job at the grocery store, I volunteer at the local animal shelter," he was flipping through my file as I continued, nodding along, "I have a 4.0 GPA, I run track during the spring, and I'm a boy scout. I don't know, it's just stressing me out. I feel like I'm at my max."
He made eye contact. "I can certainly see why doing all of that would up your stress levels, but honestly, I can't find any of that in your file."
"Well, I've been thinking that I ought to do all of those things, and it's really been taxing on my mind lately."
Doctor Philip Coleman's POV
This was amazing, the boy simply had a cornucopia of issues, he had a hard shell, but I was sure I was cracking it.
"Can I talk about my childhood Doc?"
"Sure, that would be excellent." We were really connecting.
"Well, after a while, the slaps just became ordinary-"
"Wait a second, slaps?"
He nodded patiently, "From my brother. Jasper has always been jealous of me."
I wrote that down on my pad.
"Uh huh and why do you think your brother is jealous of you?"
"Well, he always is telling me it's not fair that I got all the good looks in the family, and the brains, and all the superior traits. So he makes up for it by hitting me."
I was appalled; here was a good child in a very bad home situation.
"And what do your parents do when he hits you?"
He shrugged carelessly, spinning his hat on his hand. "Dad's never home, he's always working and Mom's obsessive compulsive."
"Surely your father can't work all the time."
"Well, I suppose he did make it to my fourth grade spelling bee," he frowned. "Oh no, that's right, mom videotaped it for him though."
This was a textbook case of child neglect. I would have to call a meeting with his parents.
"And your mother?"
"Clean freak, controlling about my life, obsessive compulsive, she dotes on Jasper and I frequently get the shaft."
"My arms used to be black and blue from all of her pinches."
"Yes, yes, go on," he said excitedly. "Give me an example."
"Once, Jasper came into my room and messed it up, claiming I had 'cheated' in a basketball game, and mom found out. She went ballistic; I didn't eat for two days."
Edward's POV
I watched as he tried to swallow. This was fun, I grinned. I should have gone to counseling a long time ago. It was well worth the trouble screwing with this guys mind.
Doctor Phil wasn't going to last long in this position.
Bella's POV
I walked into English class, and I felt like the day should already be half over. Trudging up to my desk, I dropped my pile of books down on it and saw the desk beside me was occupied.
"Hello Bella."
"Hello Jasper," I replied nicely. I really did like him, despite how idiotic his brother often was. I still couldn't believe they were related.
"So, do you like literature?"
I shrugged, "It's my favorite, but I don't mind the other subjects. I try to be well rounded as my other foster family used to say."
"That's a good thing to use as a goal."
I didn't have a chance to reply because the teacher chose that moment to start class.
"Good morning, today, we have a new student joining us from all the way south in Phoenix, Arizona. Everyone, this is Isabella Swan."
"Bella," I mumbled, my face flush red as I gave a tiny wave, as though trying to ward off the uncomfortable stares.
"Okay, so back to the agenda. Today I would like everyone to hand in your animal essays." She looked over to me. "You'll be excused from this assignment, because it's too late for you to complete it, but the basic idea is, every student was given an animal, and they had to write a seven page report on their findings using encyclopedia format."
I nodded, it seemed simple enough.
A boy whose name was Mike, turned around and shoved his paper in my face.
"Hey, Isabella-"
"It's just Bella."
"Right, well Bella, you should check out my paper, it's really sweet."
I skimmed the first page dutifully. It was surprisingly good. I did a quick assessment of Mike; I didn't ever really think he was this intelligent. Oh well, it just goes to show how misleading appearances are.
"Ah Mr. Cullen, where may I ask, were you?"
I looked up in time to catch Edward flash the English teacher a mega watt smile and hand her a piece of paper.
"Sorry Denise, I have an excuse this time, guess you can't give me a detention today after all."
She skimmed the note and set it down. "Take a seat Mr. Cullen, and that's Mrs. Landon to you."
To my surprise and I hated to admit a little bit of excitement, he slid into the desk two rows over from mine.
"Well Mr. Cullen, we've already turned in our papers, so I'll collect yours now."
He grinned and locked eyes with me before pulling out a stapled set of papers.
"Here you go."
She took the packet from him and started to walk away, then stopped.
"Edward, what is this?" She turned around and held up the papers.
I stared at them curiously. It almost looked like . . . no, not even he would do that.
"My report," he said innocently.
"Your report," she repeated, looking at the papers. "Edward, this is an encyclopedia article about the aardvark, copied from the book and stapled together. For heaven's sake, it even has Encyclopedia Millennia 2000 Copyright at the bottom of each page."
Edward nodded. "But you'll find my name hand written at the top."
"That doesn't make it your work."
"I think you'll find that I fit your criteria exactly."
He was way too confident; I couldn't believe he had tried to pull this.
"Pray tell how?"
"You said that it needed to be handwritten or typed. I made sure it was both."
"That doesn't explain the fact that you didn't write a paper of your own words."
"Well, you didn't tell us to do that did you? All you directed us to do was to, and I quote 'turn in a seven page report on your findings using encyclopedia format.' I used a report; you didn't say it had to be my own. Those are my findings, I just cut out the middle man work, it's straight from the fact book. And also, I'm pretty sure you can't dispute the fact that it's in encyclopedia format."
She rolled her eyes. "That was entertaining and refreshing Edward, but I'm afraid I can't excuse plagiarism."
She drew a red F on his paper and handed it back to him.
"So this was just about the plagiarism?" He asked, seemingly confused.
"Yes Edward," she was obviously exasperated with him now, "plagiarism is bad, I thought you would have picked up on that by the eleventh grade."
"Well, why didn't you just say it was about the plagiarism? Are you planning on failing half the class?"
She looked at him. "No one else plagiarized Edward, just you."
He refused to back down.
"They just didn't do it as blatantly as I did. Hell, Newton's paper is plagiarized."
I looked at Mike who had just gone pale.
She raised one eyebrow. And then pulled out Mike's paper and skimmed over it. "And where's your proof?"
He shrugged. "Just look it up on It'll be on there with a big sold sign across the title."
"And how do you know?"
His mouth twitched. "I sold it to him for fifty bucks." He looked over at Mike and said in a mock whisper, "Listen buddy, next time, don't include you name in your account info, there's crazy people out there who could take advantage of a good looking boy like yourself."
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Mike looked torn from being outraged that Edward revealed his secret, and pleased that Edward said he was good looking. It was just too much.
"Edward?"
"Yes Denise?"
"It's Mrs. Landon, and if you wrote this paper and really spent time and effort on this one, why would you not work on your own paper like this?"
"Well Denise," he said slowly as if he was trying to patiently explain himself to a child, a sexy grin stole over his face, "if you had offered me fifty bucks I would have given you Mike's paper."
A/N: Tell me what you thought. The more reviews, the sooner I update.
