CHAPTER THREE

I stared off into space for the rest of the class, contemplating all the excuses I could make to get out of having to cut up frogs; the thought of dealing with amphibian guts was more than enough to distract me from just about anything. The whole affair dragged on much longer than the classes, and whether it was because the end of the day was drawing closer or because I was sitting next to one of the most beautiful and apparently most hostile people in all of Forks, I didn't know. Finally the bell rang, and my ill-tempered companion rose from his seat and was out the door before anyone else could even stand up.

"What was that all about?" Mike asked as he and Angela wandered over, tilting his head a bit towards Edward's empty seat.

I felt like melting into the floor. "Uhm… was something the matter? I didn't notice."

"Cullen was totally trying to make your brain explode with his thoughts or something. I've never seen anything like that."

"Oh," I squirmed inside while we walked out the door and into yet another cloudburst. I pulled my jacket hood up; it was truly starting to double as a way to hide from stares, glares and curious onlookers. "Is he normally so… cranky?"

Mike let out a small snort. "The Cullens stick to the Cullens. The rest of us just ignore them. I'm really starting to wonder about that guy though. Too weird."

I had gym with Mike, as it turned out, and so we waved goodbye to Angela and headed towards the larger building. Mike was the utter opposite of Angela in personality, oddly reminding me of a male version of Jessica. He chattered the entire way to the gym about everything from breakfast cereals to the store his father owned. I tried to participate in the conversation as best as I could, but the best I could offer was my opinion on Frosted Flakes.

He finally took a breath and stopped yammering as we reached the girl's locker room inside the gym, rubbing the back of his head and grinning. "Well, I guess you know about me more than you'd ever like to, huh?"

"It's cool," I replied with a grin of my own. My worries about being friendless this year were completely shattered; Mike was very likeable. "I hate doing all the talking anyhow."

"That Edward," Mike said, a serious looking coming into his eyes, "doesn't know what he's missing. Don't let him bother you, okay? If he does, I'll have to beat the crap out of him."

My spirits were quite suddenly lifted as Mike winked at me and headed off to the boy's locker room. The rest of class went by smoothly and without too much stress, even when I had to turn my yellow slip in to the teacher, have it signed and get stared at by various classmates as I sat on the sidelines while they were forced to do laps; even Mike glanced at me inquisitively. I busied myself with math homework-- the only kind of homework you actually get on the first day-- and decided to be productive instead of wasting my time doodling and daydreaming like usual. When the last bell of the day rang, I tripped down the bleachers and out the door before Mike could find me… I knew there would be questions, and I didn't have the time or inclination to answer them.

I walked to the office, glad that the rain has eased up into a fine mist. As I walked up the steps and into the building, I slammed into a student coming out the door. I apologized rapidly, then froze as a low growl reached my ears. Edward Cullen glared at me from the doorway, and I realized with a stab of panic that the almost animalistic noise was coming from his throat. I shrunk back as far as I could without falling backwards down the stairs.

"S-sorry," I whispered again, my voice trembling.

Without a word, he pushed past me and headed off towards the parking lot. I hurried into the building, surprised that I was actually shaking. My hand

The woman at the counter, the same woman from this morning, smiled at me as she took the slip. "The weather here must be so different than what you're used to," she said, obviously mistaking my terror for being cold. "How was your first day?"

"Fine," I mumbled. "Small classes."

She nodded. "Which reminds me… You can't switch classes unless you fill out a form. Some students," her eyes flickered briefly to the door, "try to get around it by sweet-talking us, but rules are the rules."

I was stunned. "Edward Cullen tried to switch classes?"

"Biology II. Don't tell me you want to switch, too? Like I told him, there really isn't any other option for that period. Other classes are full."

I shook my head, exchanged a few more pleasantries and then left to wait for my father. It was impossible that Edward Cullen would be switching class to avoid me, yet it was the first thing that immediately came to mind. I sat on the bench by the office, resting my cheek in one hand and drumming my fingers on the cement with the other. Perhaps it wasn't me after all, I thought as I saw my father's cruiser in the distance. I would have to ask Charlie if he'd ever had issues with the Cullens; maybe Edward knew of my father and had gotten in trouble before. That would explain why no one wanted to talk about them…

I scrambled into Charlie's car the moment he pulled up, hoping to get out of there as fast and with as few people seeing me as possible. I leaned back against the seat with a sigh, buckling my seat-belt and rubbing my eyes.

"Long day?" Charlie asked, pulling out of the parking lot and heading towards the house.

"Something like that," I sighed. I paused a moment; I should wait until later to ask, when my father had more time, but I wanted to test the waters a bit. "I have good classes, and some of the students are really nice. But there's one kid who had a downright nasty attitude… he was being completely rude."

Charlie made a small noise. "They were bad, huh? That's strange. I've never had any trouble with most of the kids there. Some of them have had the odd speeding ticket, and there have always been a few kids who weren't the best of people or families from out of town that move here and aren't always model citizens, but most of them come from very respectable, hard working families and are well-behaved."

Well, there went that theory.

"Oh. Maybe Edward was just having a bad day, then."

He glanced at me for a fraction of a second; I could see it out of the corner of my eyes. "Edward Cullen?"

… Or not.

"Yeah, why?" I asked as casually as possible. "Are they one of the out of town families that gives you trouble?"

"Ah, well," Charlie hesitated. "The Cullens moved here two years ago. Their father is a good man and an excellent doctor. There's just a lot of town gossip is all… Edward Cullen hasn't ever been in trouble here. All the same, maybe you're better off sticking to people who are a little more… friendly. I want to see you happy this year."

I looked out the window and into the thick forest surrounding our home. A small chill went up my back, much like the one during lunch. My father said that Edward hadn't gotten into trouble, so what was it that had caused his odd behavior? No, scratch that. Charlie said Edward hadn't caused trouble here, in Forks. They'd lived somewhere else two years ago. I knew from personal experience that a family didn't just up and move to a place like this in the middle of the school year. I would have inquired further, but we were pulling up to the house and the look on Charlie's face told me he was lost in his thoughts… not the best time to press for information. I would have to wait.

Grabbing my backpack, I let myself in as Charlie went back to work, heading upstairs to take a shower and finish my math. All I could wonder was what exactly I had gotten myself into.

* * * * *

The next day was better than the first, in many ways.

For the first half of the night, I'd lain awake and tried to ignore the rain outside; how anyone was supposed to sleep with that, I'd never know. Somewhere between one o'clock in the morning when I finally fell asleep and seven o'clock when I woke up, the storming had miraculously ceased. The wind had all but disappeared and the rain was minimal, even though the dark clouds constantly overhead still threatened a deluge at any moment.

I had taken my spot in the back row of English class, and Erin once again sat next to me. Mike, who gave Erin a somewhat apprehensive glance, seemed content to sit in the spot in front of me, eventually twisting around in his seat and complimenting me on my scrawly, illegible handwriting… of all things. He looked pleased when Erin and I both included him in our morning chatter, and I was relieved that Erin was indifferent to Mike's off-the-wall attempts at flirting.

The three of us walked together to my Government class, which was proving to be more interesting than I had suspected, and I somehow avoided getting called on in both Geometry and Spanish class. Jessica walked with me to lunch like yesterday, and patted me on the back when my face drained of color like yesterday; little did she know that it was for an entirely different reason. While I was anxious over having to stand in that crowded line, I was more anxious that Edward Cullen would be in that crowd. It was an utterly irrational fear-- I had done nothing gravely wrong, he was obviously just unsocial and probably was irritated with people staring at him. I could sympathize. And yet…

But Edward Cullen was also why the day was worse than yesterday. I didn't run into him in the line, I didn't manage to trip over him or offend him any further. I didn't have the chance; he wasn't anywhere in sight. There were only four figures at the Cullen's table, all looking vaguely morose. I ate my usual almost-healthy salad in silence, listening to Mike and another boy banter about football and trying my best to follow the conversation if only to have a distraction.

"Hey, Bella?" Angela asked quietly, tugging lightly on my sleeve. "I need to go to Biology early. Can you come with me?"

I leapt at the chance to escape from the buzzing, crowded room. "Sure."

We dumped our trays, said our goodbyes and headed off. Angela nervously brushed back her hair with one hand, and I could feel a strange uneasiness between us. She fidgeted the entire way to the classroom; once we got inside, she set her stuff down and glanced about. We were alone, and I was sure that was the point.

"What's the matter, Angela?"

Angela looked at the floor, sitting down in her seat and folding her hands in her lap. Her knuckles were white. "Can I ask you something?"

I sat in the chair next to her. "Of course."

She bit her lip. "If… if, theoretically, there was something about one of our classmates… If there was a rumor about them, would you want to know? I mean, it's just a rumor of course, but…"

"Is this about Edward Cullen?" I asked, my entire body suddenly going tense. "Angela, if there's something you think I should know, then just tell me."

"Well… The Cullens came here from Alaska two years ago, very suddenly. It was in the middle of the school year and everything. Then this cop from Alaska came down here and worked with your dad for a while… There was this girl, her name was Amelia Lancaster. I guess she hung around with the Cullens. I guess one day the Cullens went out camping and she came along… Emmett Cullen and Rosalie Hale went out hiking, and then they heard screaming and came back. I guess a mountain lion had made it's way into camp, and…" Angela trailed off, wringing her hands.

I tried to swallow; my mouth was too dry. "And?"

"And… when the authorities got to the scene, Amelia was missing. They couldn't find her body and eventually said that she'd been mauled by a mountain lion or fell off a cliff or something. But the weird part was that Edward was missing, and Jasper Hale was, too. Alice Cullen said Edward had been upset and Jasper had taken him somewhere else to calm down. They never did find the mountain lion. They didn't even find paw prints."

"…Oh," I finally managed to say. I wrapped my arms around myself; the room felt colder.

"I don't know what the cop and your dad talked about, but rumor has it that the Alaskan police were investigating Edward Cullen for some reason…"

"They thought he killed her?"

"No one knows, and that's why Mike doesn't like us talking about it. He says it's mean to talk about people behind their backs like that. But you weren't here when the Cullens came, so…That's why people tend to be so jumpy around them," she took a breath and looked up at me with a faint smile. "I'm sure it's nothing. People like to make stories. I bet the cop was just finishing up some paperwork or something. He left a few days later."

I opened my mouth to reply, but just then the teacher came in. "Thanks for letting me know," I said. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but as the bell rang and students began to file in, I knew I'd have to wait until another time. I went to my seat and grabbed my textbook out of my backpack, my head spinning.

"Hey, Bella!" Mike greeted cheerfully as he bounced through the door. "Guess what?"

He began to prattle on about a trip he was planning to take to La Push on Halloween. I nodded at all the appropriate places, smiled politely and said I would think about going… but I was somewhere else mentally, and I barely heard a word he said. I felt guilty for not being more enthusiastic; I should have been paying attention instead of glancing at the door, wondering if Edward would walk in. Still, Mike looked satisfied as the teacher called the class to order and he took his place next to Angela-- I wondered what exactly I'd agreed to while I was spacing out.

The rest of Biology class was spent reading about cells. Edward Cullen never showed up, and with everyone reading, the silence that fell over the room felt eerie. Mike nearly got in trouble for flirting with the girl at the next table, which he complained about the entire way to gym class; I offered him my sympathy, even if he'd brought it on himself. Once we were inside the gym, I took my place in the bleachers and got out my English homework, a few simple questions on a reading assignment. Everyone else started their warm-ups and eventually the teacher began to explain the rules of volleyball.

I watched for a moment, feeling a glimmer of sadness rise in the back of my mind. The game sounded fun-- I remembered seeing people play it in Phoenix. I wished I could have joined them, but I knew that if I got stressed and hyperventilated, I could have an attack… And that was the last thing I wanted. As much as I wanted to be down there with the others, I wasn't like them and it was for my own good-- as well as for the good of everyone else, as clumsy as I was-- that I stayed out of it instead of risking a seizure.

Although I couldn't play sports, I wasn't without any talent. During the first year or so after my accident, I spent time exploring things I could do; aside from photography and gardening, I had learned that I was a decent cook. My mother at least knew how to cook an egg, but much to my dismay, I had learned that Charlie could barely do that much. Once I was done with English, I brought out a sheet of notebook paper and began to make a list of things needed from the store. Anything to keep my mind busy. It would be nice to fill up the cupboard and fridge with decent food and teach Charlie how to actually make himself something besides microwave dinners…

Mike waved at me as class let out; he was running off with another blond guy and without a doubt it had something to do with football. I waved back, smiling and heading towards the front of the school. Since it still wasn't raining, I took advantage of the 'good' weather and walked slower than normal. I was halfway between the gym and the main building when the four Cullens walked out from the school, crossed my path about four yards away and piled into a flashy, brand-new silver Volvo. I kept walking, though I felt slightly surprised; the only time I'd seen cars like that was when the rich yuppies all got their kids one. Despite the way they dressed, the Cullens obviously had money… not to mention looks. It was curious that they kept to themselves when they could easily have people bowing at their feet.

My mind wandered back to what Angela had said in Biology. Maybe not so curious…

I stopped and glanced over my shoulder. The driver of the Volvo, the smaller female named Alice, was watching me in the car mirror. No, I thought to myself with scorn, she wasn't watching me. It didn't make sense. Even so, I couldn't resist the shiver that ran through my body. I turned back around and walked a bit faster.