C/N: This is Bella's first class with Alice and Edward. While phoning someone she sees a guy who can't stop staring at her. She is totally freaked out by him and she finds out later who he is and she is shocked.

Thanks to my two kick ass Betas – Woodlily and itsange!

Chapter 6

BPOV

Alice and I left our room to head to our first class, which we had together. I was surprised by that, but it was nice. We made our way through the commons arm in arm, checking out the different guys we saw, talking and giggling like high school girls. I noticed that the guys were looking in our direction, watching us as we walked by. They were probably checking Alice out. I nudged her and pointed to a couple of the guys who couldn't seem to take their eyes off of her. She started to laugh.

"Girl, they are looking at you not me."

I scoffed, "No they're not, Alice. Not even close!"

"Yes they are!" She giggled and waved at one of the guys. I was shocked. Oh My God. The guy waved back and Alice pointed to me. He smiled and nodded.

"See, told you so." Oh man. She started laughing again when she looked back at me. My face had to have been five shades of red, and I could feel the heat radiating from my cheeks. Alice grabbed my hand and began to lead me away from where we had stopped. She had to pull me along because my body did not want to cooperate; I was frozen due to shock. I wasn't used to getting that kind of attention from guys. I was the shy one at school and except for my guy friends; no one at school gave me the time of day. This is a new experience for me. I don't know how to act or feel about it.

"Come on, Bella…Bella? Bella?" She called my name a little bit louder. It snapped me back to reality.

"Yeah…hmmm…what?" I asked incoherently as I tried to articulate my words but not succeeding. She started to laugh some more at my expense. Alice was still taking the lead as we made our way to the English building. She was still giggling and making fun of me. Alice is never going to let me live this down.

We found our classroom and watched as the other students entered the class before we did. Alice was still laughing and teasing me about my reaction to those guys from earlier, her laugh carried throughout the corridor. People kept looking back at her, most of them staring in disbelief or amusement, take your pick, and they must have thought that she was crazy. I wanted to agree at the moment. Alice was in front of me as we entered the room, but she suddenly came to a stop and I almost ran into her. I walked around to her right side and looked at her. Her eyes were wide and there was a huge grin plastered on her face. I tried to pull her like she had done to me, but she wouldn't budge. She was staring at something, so I followed her gaze. Oh no! God would not do this to me. Yes he would, this is pure torture.

I saw him. I would recognize him anywhere. He had a rare copper, bronze colored hair, chiseled jaw and cheeks. I saw the most beautifully bright emerald green eyes looking back at us. His eyes widened in shock…fear maybe, but his look went from shock to what…anger? Why would he be angry? Then his eyes moved from Alice to me. My cheeks felt like they were on fire now. I needed to leave and I couldn't, damn it. This is not going to be good. That look of anger, if that's what it was, slowly moved into confusion.

Alice finally moved and made her way back to where Edward was sitting. Oh no, not happening. I pulled back on her hand and she turned to look to me. I shook my head no and she smiled at me but continued to pull me along. She led me to a couple of empty desks near him. She sat at the one next to him and the one in front of her was empty so I sat down. I didn't think I could have handled being any closer to him. I was beyond pathetic. I don't even know him!

Alice decided to speak first. "Edward, this is Bella, my roommate and friend." I turned around to look at him, and I felt the heat intensify in my cheeks. "Bella, this is my brother, Edward." He looked over to me and nodded.

"Hello," I squeaked. How freaking embarrassing. He must think I'm nuts. I heard a soft chuckle come from him. LET ME DIE NOW! Why me? I looked down trying to avoid making eye contact with him. A moment later, I heard a loud slap. I looked up and Edward was rubbing his bicep.

"What?" he whined. I looked at her, and she was giving him the 'death stare'. What did he do to deserve that?

"Be nice!" she spat. She was kind of pissed. Okay, what the hell was I missing?

"What did I do?" he asked confused, still rubbing his arm absent-mindedly. I was also confused. I kept looking between the both of them.

"Edward. Anthony. Cullen!" Alice's voice had raised enough to be heard by everyone else in the room. I was biting my tongue to keep from laughing at Edward because he was the one blushing this time. Oh, he was so adorable. Edward began to rub his hands over his face and they found his way into his hair. Oh, I want to do that. He groaned. Oh God! That sound just did something to my insides. I had to shift in my seat a bit. Damn!

"Alice, I hate when you do that!" he grumbled. His hands were rubbing his face again. I couldn't stop it this time, I started giggling. It was like he was being scolded by his mother, but it was coming from his sister. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I was watching Alice through all this, but it felt like someone was staring at me. I looked over at Edward and the giggling stopped dead in my chest. He didn't look mad, but it was a strange feeling.

"I…I'm sorry," I said nervously. I felt the need to apologize in case he was mad. "I didn't mean to laugh." At least I tried not to laugh, but it was too funny not to. So I told him so. "But it was funny watching the two of you." I watched as a smile crept across his lips. He was so cute.

"It's alright," he said. "Alice always brings out the worst in me." Just then, Alice hit him again and scooted her desk further away from him. I busted out laughing, harder this time.

"Go ahead, Edward, see if I talk to you again." She was sitting in her desk with her arms crossed over her chest and her bottom lip jutted out in a pout. Edward and I sat there laughing at her.

"Aww come on, lil sis, you know I love ya," he said, teasingly as he pulled her desk back towards him. She was slapping at his hands to get him to stop. When that didn't work, she started slapping at his arm again.

"Stop it!" she squealed. I began to laugh harder; tears were streaming down my face. Edward was still laughing. Alice gave up and joined in. I couldn't stop watching the both of them. My eyes were blurry from the tears, but I was having so much fun watching them. Sometimes I wish I had brothers and sisters so I could have the kind of relationship that Edward and Alice had. Jake was kind of a surrogate brother to me, but it wasn't the same. He wasn't there every day with me while I grew up. God, I missed him, but his damn stubbornness kept him away from me. I just wished that we could go back to the way things were before the fiasco at New Year's. Damn, Jacob!

I glanced over at Edward and he seemed to be looking at me, but not looking at me. It was kind of like he was in a daze. He suddenly snapped himself out of it and looked over at Alice. I saw a hint of surprise suddenly appear on his face, so I looked to Alice. There was some kind of unspoken communication going on between them. It was strange to watch Alice's expression. It was kind of devious. Whatever Edward was doing made the grin she had grow immensely. Something about this made me very nervous. Thank God the professor showed up before I found myself in the middle of something I may not have been ready for. For some strange reason, or maybe it was the atmosphere surrounding those two, a shiver ran through my entire body. Where the hell did that come from?

Professor Marcus dismissed the class early. What am I going to do for the next couple hours? Alice took me by the hand again and we headed out of the classroom. I was in the middle of telling Alice about my next class when I saw Edward come up behind her and put his arm around her shoulder. I was really excited about it. I had always loved to write, ever since I was little; writing poetry and short stories. Growing up I wanted to become a writer. I had an over active imagination and my mind was always full of different ideas.

"Alice, I'm so excited about my next class. It's at one-thirty," I said excitedly.

"What is it?"

"It's Advanced Writing with Professor Aro, I think that's his name." Edward's head snapped up, and he looked in my direction. I was a little shocked.

He didn't look at me when he asked, "You are taking Advance Writing with Professor Aro?"

"Yeah, today at one-thirty. You know the class?" I asked, intrigued. Maybe he had taken the class and could give me some pointers. Wait, why would he do that? Keep dreaming girl.

"Kind of. That's my next class for the day," he said, looking at me this time. His eyes are killing me. I could seriously get lost in them. Once again, I felt the heat flooding my face. I needed to get a grip. Edward looked at me strangely, and then looked back at Alice. She had some all-knowing expression on her face. He seemed to be surprised by her expression and became a little fidgety.

"Hey, I'll catch ya later, sis," he said. He looked over to me and nodded. "Bella."

I watched as he walked away. His hands went into his pockets and his head went down. It was like he was trying to shut out the world. My heart ached for him, so much so that I wanted to find the girl who had hurt him and gouge her eyes out. Okay, what was that about? Why did I want to stoop to physical violence for someone I hardly know? Why was I so drawn to him? I couldn't stop looking at his picture earlier. When we were in class all I wanted to do was stare at him, but I couldn't. Now, we had another class together. But this time it was without Alice between us. What was I going to do?

Alice and I left the English building. We weren't sure what we were going to do to pass the time. I had almost three hours to kill, and Alice's class was not until three-thirty. We decided to go do lunch, but Alice wanted to drop her books off at our room first. We made our way through the commons. It still felt kind of strange when I noticed a guy looking at me. It was so new to me. I had always considered myself a plain girl, nothing special to look at. I never had a boyfriend and never really wanted one. Jacob obviously wanted more, but I didn't. Thinking about Jake made me miss him even more. I decided that I should try to call him, see if he would actually pick up the phone this time. I told Alice to give me a few minutes, and I walked over to one of the benches in the quad.

I started to get a little nervous. I hadn't spoken to Jake in over seven months. My hands started to shake a little, and I had a hard time flipping through my phone to find his number. When his picture popped up on my screen, tears began to prick at my eyes. *sniffle* I pressed send. I began to breathe in and out, trying to calm my nerves. I looked around the quad while I waited for the phone to ring, and I watched as other students walked from building to building. I saw some of the students taking advantage of the sun and the warm weather that still lingered around. As the fourth ring began, I started to feel down ,and I decided to look for Alice, but I was sidetracked by a guy who was staring at me, intensely. I looked around me to see if there was anyone near me he could be looking at, but no. This was weird. As soon as I turned back around I got Jake's voicemail. *sigh*

'Hey, it's Jake, leave me a message!'

"Jake, it's Bella, but you already know that. That's probably why you didn't answer. *sigh* I wish you would talk to me…I miss you, Jake. I miss hearing your voice. Please call me… please," I begged. I hit the end button and I just wanted to cry. I looked up and that guy was still staring at me. He wasn't bad looking - not as gorgeous as Edward - but he was cute. He had blonde hair; it was pulled back into a ponytail. He had a slight tan and his face had a couple days' worth of stubble on it. I liked that on a guy, it was sexy, and I immediately thought of Edward. Yummy!

He caught me staring. I really wasn't staring at him; I was daydreaming in his general direction. He smiled and winked at me. I smiled back, but I started to feel a bit uncomfortable. His smile made me feel uneasy, dirty. I felt a shiver run through me, and his eyes widened. The smile he had got immensely bigger. He must have taken that shiver as a sign of excitement and that was so not the case. I needed to find Alice Looking around, I found her talking amongst a group of other students, mostly guys, and she was laughing. She saw me looking at her, smiled, and waved me over. As I walked over to her, I took a quick glance behind me to see if that guy was still staring; he was nowhere to be seen. Thank God. Creepy!

Alice must have sensed my discomfort. "Are you alright, Bella?" Her brows furrowed in concern.

I shrugged, coming to stop next to her. "Yeah, I'm good - just kind of creeped out right now," I said, giving her a small smile.

"What happened?" Her eyes tried to meet mine.

"Nothing, really. My imagination was probably getting the better of me."

She moved a little closer and put her hand on my arm. I felt like an idiot. I sighed and another shiver ran through me. "I don't think so, Bella. I just felt that shudder your body just gave off," she said matter-of-factly.

Damn, I was hoping she hadn't felt that. I looked up at her. "It's probably nothing. I was trying to call the friend that I told you about earlier, and I caught this guy staring at me. I mean, really staring at me. He kind of creeped me out. He winked at me, and his smile"—I shuddered again—"It was kind of evil-looking." Alice put her arm around me and pulled me closer to her.

"I don't think it was anything, but if something comes of it, I've got your back girl," She said with sincerity. I looked at her and smiled. She winked at me and gave me a huge smile. I leaned into her and I felt my body relax.

"You ready to go to lunch?" she asked.

"Yeah, but don't you need to stop at the room first?" I motioned to her bag.

"Oh crap, yeah. Do you mind?" She looked at me.

"Of course not, the walk will do me some good." It will help take my mind off of Jacob and that guy from the commons. We got up and started walking.

"Did you get a hold of your friend?"

So much for forgetting about Jacob. "No, but I wasn't expecting to. He hasn't answered my calls for months. I was just… hoping that's all." I wanted to cry, but I held the tears back. Man, I needed to stop this. I didn't do anything wrong. But why do I feel so guilty?

"He will come around, Bella." She sounded sure of her statement.

I laughed, "I doubt it. You didn't see his face when he left that night. He looked broken, but I don't know what he was expecting. He laid all that out on me, and he was surprised when I didn't feel the same way. I can't change that," I said as I wiped a damn traitor tear that fell from my eye.

"Are you sure about that, Bella? You don't have any romantic feelings for him?" She looked at me skeptically. I sighed; I felt like I had to defend myself again. Why was this so hard to believe? He was…he is my best friend, my brother. I didn't want him in that way, ugh!

"No, Alice, I never thought of Jacob in that way. He was like my brother. That's all!" I said through clenched teeth. Alice stepped back and put her hands up. "I'm sorry. I'm just tired of trying to defend myself."

She looked remorseful. "I didn't mean anything by it, Bella. Sometimes guys want to see more than what's there, and sometimes they don't want to see what's directly in front of their…" She trailed off looking into space.

I looked at her, confused. "Alice, are you okay?"

It took her a few moments, but she sighed. "Yeah, I'm good…just thinking."

"Anything I can help with?"

She shrugged her shoulders and laughed, "Not unless you can get into the mind of a particular guy and tell him to get his act together." I knew I had a look of confusion written all over my face. She laughed again, "Don't worry about it. I'll figure it out. But another thing I'm having issues with is there is this guy that I like and well, I guess I'm kind of in the same scenario as you and your friend. I want to tell him but I'm scared to find out if he feels the same thing back. So I don't say or do anything about it."

I totally got it. She didn't want to say anything out of fear of rejection. Jacob told me everything, he laid it all out, but he didn't take into consideration all the possible outcomes of what he was doing. Argh! Life sucks sometimes!

"Oh, Alice, I'm not the right one to talk to about this. I can listen, be a shoulder to cry on if and when the need arises, but after what happened with Jake, I'm the last person to give advice on this subject. I do hope that everything works out for you. You deserve to be happy." God that sounded kind of lame because now I feel bad for Jake, he deserves to be happy too, but it's not with me. I was NOT the one!

She raised her eyebrow. "And you don't?" Was she reading my mind? I laughed at her expression and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm happy," I lied. I missed my family and my best friend.

"You're lying. You don't do it very well." She smirked at me. I was a little shocked by that.

"Well, I am…to a point. I miss my family, and I really miss Jacob." I missed them so much I felt the tears well up in my eyes. Alice saw this and wrapped her arm around me again.

"Hey, no need to cry. Look: how about I make you a part of my family? We can be like sisters if you want."

She sounded kind of excited about the prospect. I had to admit, I kind of liked the thought of that. I was by myself here. I needed someone in my life that I could trust, and Alice made that easy. I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a big hug.

"Alice, I would so like that!" I was kind of excited. I was grinning from ear to ear.

She pulled back and grasped my hands. "Girl, we are going to have so much fun!" she squealed. I was crying now, happy tears this time.

She looked confused. "Why are crying now?" she asked.

I choked a laugh. "These are good tears. I'm definitely happy now."

"Good! Now come on sis, let's finally go do lunch. You don't have that much time left before your next class," she said as she got up and pulled my hand.

I looked at the time on my phone. It was almost twelve. We still had time for lunch and from there I could head to class.

~*MoTH*~

We finally made it to our room. Alice dropped her books off and I switched mine out. We both took a few minutes to freshen up. Okay, I took a few minutes. Alice took about twenty. When I washed my face, I allowed the cool water to sooth my eyes and cheeks. I definitely didn't want to look like I had been crying when I went to my next class, especially since Edward would be there. Why do I care what he thinks about me? Let's see, because he's gorgeous. He's like a Greek god. He makes everything inside me quiver - places I didn't even know existed. I feel like I'm having a hot flash. I need some more cold water. DAMN!

We finally left the room at twelve fifteen. Alice and her damn primping. Okay, so I had an hour and fifteen minutes until my next class. That meant we needed to eat somewhere on campus. We decided on the little deli that we went to on Saturday. We located a table leaving our stuff there while we went to order something to eat. While Alice was getting her drink, I took mine back to the table and waited for my order to be called.

I sat and watched students as they came and went from the deli. I looked for Alice. She was talking to someone on the phone. I turned back to the entrance just as the door opened again. My eyes widened in surprise. It was the blonde from the commons. I watched as he scanned the deli. When his gaze met mine, that creepy smile made its way back on his face. *Shudder*

Damn, I needed to stop doing that, because when he caught me doing it again, his smile grew impossibly wider and he licked his lips. I felt like my eyes were going to bug out of their sockets. He made his way towards my table. Not good - this is not good.

He stopped behind the seat with Alice's bag in it. "Hi there, baby," he said huskily.

"Um, hello," I mumbled. I'm about to have a full freak out session here. I don't know what to do. Where's Alice?

"I saw you earlier today in the commons. Is this your first year here?" He moved around the table and sat down on the seat next to me.

I gasped, "Yes." Oh my God, where are you Alice? I need you.

He scooted the seat closer to me. "My name is James. It's my second year here. Where are you from?"

I tried to move my seat back some, but the window was in my way. FUCK! "From Forks." My voice wavered.

"Really? Me too. What's your name?" Oh God, seriously! I scanned the deli for Alice. She finally looked at me, and I pleaded with my eyes for her to come rescue me. She told whoever was on the phone she'd call them back and hung up. The look on her face screamed bloody murder.

"Isabella, but I go by Bella." My body was so tense right now that I was about to scream.

"Hey, since you're new in town, I would like to show you around town and maybe invite you to a party this weekend at Sigma house." Alice was at the table the moment he mentioned the party. Oh, thank you, sweet Jesus!

"Sorry, but she has plans this weekend," she said icily. "James, what are you doing here?" Alice was looking at him with such anger and hatred. What the hell?

"Alice, I didn't know you were here. I was just talking to Bella here." He smirked at her and she was livid. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides.

"I think you had better leave James. If Edward catches you here…"

He started laughing. "Oh this is too good to be true. He's here too, I forgot. I didn't think he'd come back after what happened earlier this year." Alice was shaking; her face was bright red from anger. I was just completely shocked by what was going on. I was speechless.

"You fucking prick!" she screamed. "You have got a lot of nerve to be bringing that shit up in my presence." OH MY GOD! I can't believe she just said that. Everyone in the deli stopped what they were doing and watched the scene that was playing out in front of me. He was laughing louder now.

"I'm out of here. Look, Bella, if you change your mind about this weekend, let me know. I would like to get to know you better." That wicked smile was back on his face.

Alice wasn't having it. "Fat chance, asshole." He got up and left, laughing as he left the deli.

I was still in shock over their confrontation. "Alice, what the hell was all that about? That was the guy I was telling you about earlier. He was the one that creeped me out."

"Bella, please stay away from him. He's no good. He's part of what happened to Edward earlier this year; they used to be friends until." She was trying to calm herself down and pleading with me at the same time.

"You don't have to worry about that. I don't have any interest in him whatsoever. He makes my skin crawl, and not in a good way."

"Good. I wish I could tell you more, but just trust me when I say he is bad news." Well, that little statement definitely piqued my curiosity and made me want to know everything that happened right now. It must have been bad if Alice was this worked up over James.

"I think I lost my appetite," she said, still looking disgusted.

"Me too. I lost it the second he walked through that door." I shuddered again at the thought.

"So that was the guy you were telling me about earlier?" she asked as she laid her hand over mine.

"Yeah, he was sitting at a bench across from where I was sitting. He wouldn't stop staring at me. The smile he gave me - ugh! He makes me want to shower in bleach."

"Well now that I know it is James, we need to be more cautious. He's arrogant. He always gets what he wants. He's downright evil. It makes me furious to know that he's here while Edward is here. This is not going to be good." She looked worried now. "I don't know if I should tell him or not. This may throw him back into his shell."

"Alice, honestly, even though you know this may hurt him, he still has the right to know. I don't know what happened, but if this could affect him in any way, he needs to know." I tried to be as convincing as I could. I hated to think of Edward in any kind of pain. It hurt my heart to no end, but it was the right thing to do.

Her chin started to quiver like she was holding back from crying. "I know, but this is going to hurt him or he's going to kill James. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation."

"Come on Alice, let's go. I have some time still before my class let's go for a walk."

"Yeah…sure. I need to figure out how I am going to tell Edward the guy who was partly responsible for shattering his world is back and attending school here." WHAT? I was ready to go out on a murdering spree. James was second on my list, only to the bitch who broke Edward's heart. What was I thinking? Get a grip Bella.

"I'll help you figure something out." I didn't know how or what, but I would help her in any way that I could.

"Thanks." She leaned into me as we walked out of the deli. This is not going to be good.

~*Twilightgirl224

A/N: What are they going to do? How can they tell Edward without hurting him? I will have an update this week. Let me know what you think. I love to hear from you.