Hey everyone!!! Ok, so I know many of you are probably waiting to throw rocks and vegetables and thirsty, nomadic vampires at me so go ahead. I deserve it. I'm so sorry for completely falling off the face of the earth, even after the A/N I posted the week before Christmas. Things didn't calm down as much as I thought they would as soon as school finished. But I'm here now! I only hope you're still hanging in there, too. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!! And now, FINALLY, here is a new chapter of Permanently Yours (I'll just say this one more time, for those of you who might not know, I changed the title of this story. It used to be The Reason is You)!!!!

BPOV

Oh my God! I can't believe he offered to carry my bag for me! That's so sweet, but who does that these days? Certainly no guy I've ever known… until now. He walked by my side as I led him towards the cafeteria, stealing glances at me along the way. Every time I looked up and saw his eyes on me, my cheeks flamed up. Cursed blush.

We were just outside the double doors of the cafeteria when I stopped abruptly. Is he going to sit with the gang and I for lunch? Or is he going to sit somewhere else? Ok, breathe Bella. Just ask him. "Umm, would you like to sit with my friends and I?" I mumbled almost inaudibly.

He flashed me that crooked smile that he seemed to know has an effect on me and said, "I'd love to." Ok, then. Time to prepare him.

"Well, in that case, I feel that it is my civic duty to warn you about what you're getting yourself into. You see, my friends can be a bit overwhelming at first but I assure you, they're harmless; except, maybe, for Alice. She's kind of--well, just brace yourself. And even though just looking at Emmett will probably scare the crap out of you, trust me, Alice is the only one you need to be worried about. Ok?" I bit my bottom lip waiting for his response.

He looked at me with a somewhat confused expression but replied, "Ok…"

I nodded and pushed open the door in front of me. Immediately, the eyes of everyone in the damn room were on us. I felt my face flush red out of embarrassment and anger.

"Umm, Bella, why is everyone staring at us?" Edward whispered to me.

Because they're all a bunch of dipshits; what do you want me to tell you?

"Because they're confused as to why you're with me and pissed at me for talking to you," I sighed. "Practically everyone at this school hates me and they think you're committing social suicide by hanging around me. I don't care what they think about me, though; I've got all the friends I need--right over there," I said, pointing to the table in the far corner of the room where Alice, Jazz, Rose and Em were all sitting, smiling like fools. Way to be subtle, guys. Obviously Rose and Emmett had been brought up to speed on my parking lot introduction with Edward. Once again, my cheeks burned red as I saw their faces and I wanted nothing more than to go over and smack the stupid-ass smiles right off all four of their faces.

I exhaled sharply and mumbled to Edward, "C'mon."

As we walked towards the table, I glared daggers at my four best friends in an attempt to keep them under control. Please let them behave themselves. I should have known, however, that it wouldn't work on Alice. She darted over to us so quickly that I didn't even have time to see a blur.

"Hi! I'm Alice Brandon, Bella's best friend. It's a pleasure to meet you, Edward. Would you like to sit with us? We'd all love it if you did. I know Bella would…" She was talking so fast, I almost had trouble understanding her which is really saying something because I'm usually the only one who can comprehend what she's squealing about when she goes off on one of her overexcited rants. Like I said, she's like Tinkerbell on speed. But I did catch the end of her little speech.

"Alice!" I hissed at her. She completely ignored me and continued waiting for Edward to answer her.

"Uhh, Bella actually already invited me to sit with you so sure, I'd love to," Edward replied as Alice started to drag him towards the table.

When we reached the others, Alice made the introductions. "Edward Cullen, this is Jasper Whitlock, Rosalie Hale and Emmett McCarty. Have a seat. You can sit right here, next to Bella," she said, gesturing to a chair that had been added to our table. That's it, you stupid pixie; you're dead.

"Alice, could I speak to you for a second?" I asked, grabbing her arm and taking her with me before she had the chance to answer. Once we were halfway across the cafeteria, I let her go and hissed under my breath, "What the hell are you doing, pixie?!"

"I'm trying to help move things along, Bella. It's obvious that the two of you are smitten with each other. You should appreciate my assistance." Assistance my ass.

"Even if your assistance is making me look like a pathetic idiot?"

She scoffed and was about to voice what I'm sure would have been a very sarcastic reply, but stopped when she heard a familiar whistle that made us both turn around and rest our eyes on the source: Rosalie. Alice's eyes searched for the trouble Rosalie was alerting us to. I saw Rose glaring at something and immediately found the cause--Jessica Stanley was marching towards our table, or stalking towards Edward to be exact, with a vindictive look on her face. This should be fun.

"Oh, shit. What does the skank want now?" Alice growled.

"Probably to rip Edward a new one for walking in with me after pricelessly turning her down. C'mon." I darted back to the table with Alice on my heels and we got there just as Jessica decided to direct her attack towards me instead.

"What the hell do you think you're doing walking around with Edward, Swan?" she spat at me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see 'Property of Jessi-skank Stanley' stamped on his forehead," I spat back.

"What makes you think he even wants you hanging around him?"

"You know, you're right. He probably wants to spend all of his time with you. Why don't you go wait for him to call you?" That really pushed her buttons.

"You better watch it, Swan!"

"Or what?" I hissed. "You're forgetting who you're having it out with, Jessica. I'm not afraid of you. You can't hurt me."

"We'll see about that, you bitch!"

"Bring it on, slut!"

"Is there a problem here?!" Who the hell was that?

Jessica and I turned to see my Biology teacher, Mr. Molina, staring at us… along with the rest of the cafeteria.

"Well?" he asked.

"No, Mr. Molina," I answered.

"Well then, why don't you both--"

"Actually, there is a problem," Jessica interrupted. Oh, bring it on, bitch. "I was just minding my own business when Bella randomly in--"

"Invited you to join her and her friends for lunch? Well, that certainly was nice of her. However, you being socially inept, Miss Stanley, does not give you the right to go off on Miss Swan the way you did." Ha ha. Go, Molina!

"But--"

"And if you ever insult Miss Swan or anyone else for that matter in my presence again, I will personally call your parents for you as you're on your way to the principal's office. Now, run along," Mr. Molina concluded. Thank you, Lord, for my kick-ass Bio teacher!

"You've got to be kidding me!" her Royal Bitchiness whined.

"I said shoo!" Jessica turned and stomped away while half of the present student body erupted in cheers.

Mr. Molina turned to me and said, "I'll see you in class next period, Miss Swan." Then he winked at me and walked away. A huge grin grew on my face.

I turned my attention towards the table where my friends were sitting and was met with a curious pair of drop-dead gorgeous emerald green eyes staring at me. Oh, for the love of God.

"Who was that?" Edward asked me.

"That would be our totally awesome Biology teacher," I replied, smiling. I sat down in the only available seat, which was right next to Edward, of course.

"Hmm, is it wrong for me to think he's the shit already without actually having been in one of his classes yet?" he asked, grinning.

I chuckled and replied, "Not at all. Molina is the shit. He's the coolest teacher in the whole school and I can honestly say that my day would completely suck if I didn't have his class to look forward to."

"Yeah, I can see what you mean. But, I have to say, having him as a teacher isn't what's got me looking forward to next period, Bella." And naturally, he chose then to smile crookedly at me.

I gaped at him for a few long seconds in response to his words, as well as his beautifulness, before my cheeks caught on fire and I averted my gaze to the tabletop. Fortunately, I was saved from having to speak because Alice started her interrogating. She asked him things like where he moved from, when his birthday is, what his hobbies are, and I learned that the answers to those questions were Chicago, June 20th, and playing the piano; this last one sparked my interest.

"You play?" I asked him.

"Yeah. Do you?" he inquired, smiling at me.

"A little," I mumbled.

"So, Edward, what are your parents like? We heard your dad is a new doctor at the hospital," Jasper said.

"Oh, uh yeah, he is. Carlisle's the new general surgeon and Esme, well she's an interior designer. She has her own business and works out of our house." I glanced around the table and saw that I wasn't the only one who noticed how Edward called his parents by their first names. I wondered what was up with that, but decided not to push it. Thankfully, no one else did either. I mean, it wasn't totally weird for him to refer to his parents by their names; I did it with Renee, both behind her back and to her face, but I always called Charlie "dad" whenever I talked directly to him. But something in Edward's voice told me there was more to it than he was letting on. "They're… the best. They're probably the kindest, most generous people I know."

I smiled at him because I hoped it would provide some comfort for the pain that was evident in his velvety voice and he gave me a small smile back. Then Emmett started talking about some sport and I lost interest in the conversation. Edward was just as animated in the conversation as Em and Jasper were so I turned to my girls to see them both staring at me with stupid shit-eating grins.

"What?" I whisper-yelled at them.

"You've totally got it bad for him, Bells," Rosalie murmured.

I scoffed, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The hell you don't, missy!"

"Relax, Rose. Don't worry. I have a feeling that by the end of the week, the two lovebirds will be inseparable," Alice chimed in.

"Oh, yeah? Would you care to elaborate on that a little bit more?" I growled.

"Nope," she replied, popping the "p" as she said it.

I was about to say something else when the shrill sound of the bell ringing filled the cafeteria. Everyone started to file out of the room and head towards their next class.

I heard someone clear their throat and turned to see Edward holding out his hand to me. "Shall we?" he asked. Again, the boy rendered me incapable of speaking so I simply nodded and took his hand as I lead him to our Biology class, all the while trying to ignore the obvious electricity flowing between us. And somewhere in the back of my temporarily out-of-service mind, I identified the two giggling idiots in the distance behind us as Alice and Rose.

Again, I'm sooooooo incredibly sorry for the wait!!!!!! I promise I won't ever disappear like that again. And I'm sorry if this is just a tiny bit shorter than the other chapters. Things are definitely going to get better soon. The next chapter is going to be their first Biology class together and depending how much I can write about that will determine whether the second half of the next chapter or the one after that will be when things start picking up. Did that sentence just make any sense??? LOL idk… anyway, please, please, please review!!!!! And thanks again for being so patient!!!

-Nicole =]