Thanks JKRowlingrox, you're a doll (:


Later that week, the last of April, Jasper was hanging out with me before class started on the large rock where the kids smoked. There was a bit of chill but nothing that would require a jacket; I simply was wearing a gray t-shirt.

"So how's the Bella charity case going for you my man?" Jasper asked with a bit of a grin. I squinted at him a little bit. Something inside of me got defensive. It had been going quite well actually, though I hated his term for it. She was interesting and easy to talk to; I enjoyed it. Though I was convinced I was just making lemonade from lemons.

"I wouldn't call her a charity case," I commented mildly, noticing that I hadn't answered his question in the slightest.

Jasper rolled his eyes while tapping his cigarette. I watched a puff of smoke blow out of his mouth before I followed in suit. The rock was just a large boulder that had a couple ledges around it and was flat on the top; it was about six feet tall. Jasper was sitting on the top and I was leaning standing up.

"Her clothes are ridiculous…" he muttered though I think I was supposed to hear it. I rolled my eyes in irritation. Well, they were, but I wasn't going to be the one to say that.

"You still with what's her name?" I asked him, changing the subject abruptly before I hit him.

"Emily?" Jasper asked disgustedly with his face twisted up. I took that as a good solid no. Good, I thought pleasantly, I didn't like her at all anyways.

"She's long gone, and I don't plan on going back, not at all. On top of being whiny and way too flirtatious she's bad in the sack." Jasper complained and just I laughed, knowing that I could have told him that just by looking at her.

Jasper had blonde hair that curled, which he hated. I remembered in 9th grade when he shaved it off to a buzz cut like Emmett. Now that was funny. He grew it back immediately after realizing that he didn't have the bulk like the oldest Swan brother. I chuckled at the memory.

"Dammit, looks like we gotta go. Ms. Wilson will kill me if I'm late again." Jasper jumped from the rock, after frantically looking at the last few students flowing into the school. He put out his cigarette and dashed across the bright green grass on his way to the second brick building. I rolled my eyes while putting my own out before grabbing my books and making my way to the first building.

Only Ms. Wilson would be able to actually get Jasper to be on time to class. That's one of the reasons I liked her. I still hated biology, don't question that, but I didn't mind her as a teacher. It was a good job for her.

Mr. Lynn walked in right after I did. He commented disinterestedly that I was on time for once. I sneered when he wasn't looking. I don't know why all teachers exaggerated my tardiness. I really wasn't as late as they made me seem. It was mildly irritating.

Paul walked in five minutes after me and the bell had rung. I waited. Of course Mr. Lynn didn't even glance in Paul's direction! It was unbelievable! Paul smirked and me and took his spot right in front of me before turning to face me. He chuckled at my annoyance.

"Some guys just walk in the light," Paul leered at me. I kicked his ankle while rolling my eyes. Paul was not one of those guys who 'walked in the light' despite what he thought.

"Hey we're going out to the cemetery tonight, Cody snagged some beer." The guys went out drinking or smoking at the cemetery quite often. It happened less during the winter but it was well on the way to summer now, so they had been out a couple times already.

"I gotta bail on that one," I shrugged at him while thinking of an excuse. I was game for smoking but I really did not drink. No one really knew it, well Martin did, but that was beside the point. They all just assumed I drank as often as they did.

"Your reason?" Paul asked me one of his eyebrows raised.

"My mom is still freaked about the whole Bella thing, so I'm not 'allowed' to go out until next week," said, pouring enough fake exasperation with my mother into my voice. Paul laughed and slapped my shoulder before someone else got his attention and he faced forward.

I went to my first class and got a good nap in during the talk about the discovery of Antarctica and then went to biology with Martin. We were talking about heredity and reproduction. That was some pretty fun stuff.

"Ms. Wilson why are we learning about this stuff? I mean, who cares if you got your foot size from your great uncles sister?" Martin complained loudly towards the end of class. The kids around the room laughed and his whining.

The room was decoration with a lot of jars of things and dead animals. It was kind of creepy when she made me sit next to the white stuffed owl with its wings out. I swear sometimes it blinked. Bella on the other hand, who was across the room, had to sit near the stuffed beaver and insects.

The whole room was a cluttered mess… but it was still actually organized. It was weird because when you first walked in, it looked so messy but she actually had a place for everything. It helped that all of her counters were oak with black tops unlike the other science teachers who got the random assortments in their classrooms.

"Well Martin, if I didn't teach you this stuff I would get fired," she said simply, perching on her desk in the front of the room. She wasn't lecturing or anything, in fact I could see a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. "You're not going to use any of this stuff in life; you really think you need to know the normal temperature of pond water? You don't. None of the stuff you learned in science over the years will have any impact on your life."

We all just started at her before she laughed and added, "Except sexual reproduction and precautions. Remember that." All the girls blushed and looked down at their hands while the guys laughed and nodded at each other like guys do. Martin and I bumped fists and we nodded at each other with a smirk.

"Now back to heredity…the red hair trait is a recessive….." from that I just drowned her out. She had said we would never use it in life, so I took that as confirmation that I could just ignore the rest of this lecture. So did Martin, so we started talking, quietly though because Ms. Wilson was giving us some looks.

The bell rang but before I could dart out the door with Martin, Ms. Wilson stopped me, "Cullen, Swan, I need to see the two of you." I groaned and slumped back in my stool while Martin chuckled at me and flooded through the door along with the rest of the mob that was my class.

Bella wheeled to her desk expectantly, though I couldn't help but notice that she looked confused too.

Ms. Wilson looked at me with her eyebrow raised, my mouth fell open and my eyes got bigger, "What?" I asked her knowing full well how whiny my voice sounded. "I didn't do anything! Martin started it!"

My teacher rolled her eyes and sighed, "I wasn't going to talk to you about your rude talking habits, though it is nice to know that you would so easily place the blame on your friend." I felt my cheeks heat up just the littlest and looked down immediately.

"No, actually I need to talk to both of you for the same reason and it would be polite if you would come and join us up here instead of sulking in the back of my classroom by Steven. Yes, I named my owl, now get up here." Oh. Steven. Okay now that's just really weird I noted as I grudgingly stood up and trudged to the front of the room where they were and away from... Steven.

I would miss Steven.

"Cullen, you know you're getting a D in this class, right?" That was a great way to start a conversation with any teacher. I just shrugged. I hadn't known for sure but it wasn't hard to guess.

"Bella you are getting an A- in this class right now." Bella smiled and nodded. Today she was in a knee length red skirt and white blouse and her hair was pulled up and twisted with little braids. It looked kind of cute on her.

"Even though we still have another 6 weeks left of school the teachers have to enter our final grades at the end of the week so all the work can be submitted. Are either of you interested in raising your grades?" She questioned as she folded her hands together and crossed her ankles. It was beyond me why Bella would need to raise her grade.

"I guess," I mumbled while Bella answered, "Okay." We were both confused why she was talking to the two of us and not the rest of the class.

"I mean Cullen you need a higher grade. I've seen your other class grades they are all above C's and Bella if you got your grade higher you would have straight A+'s."

We each nodded and waited for her to continue.

"The section that hurt your grades the most was Pond Life, so if you two could work together and do a project or lab that includes an essay and carefully gathered data I will raise your grades to a B and an A+. I can give you that for your final grade but you do have to sign a form saying you will complete the project by the end of the summer. Given the circumstances I think that is more than a fair amount of time."

I looked at Bella once Ms. Wilson had finished talking and she was looking at me. I thought slowly about what she had said. There was no way I could be able to raise my grade in the next three days and I thought I could do this. Bella seemed to be thinking the same thing, though I did not share in her confidence.

Then I realized that Bella would want her good grade, and if we were partners then she would be doing at least half of the work. Maybe, I thought craftily, if I agreed to this I could convince Bella to do most of the work. I grinned to myself and then let it fall so neither of them could guess what I was thinking.

"I can do that, where do I sign?"

"I hoped you say that Mr. Cullen. Bella my dear, what do you think?" Ms. Wilson smiled happily at me before turning to Bella. There was no way I was doing this if she wasn't. No way in hell.

"Sure, I can do that as well." I breathed out a sigh of relief as Ms. Wilson smiled even wider and dug through her desk till she pulled out a white sheet that had been typed with her type writer.

"You have until August 29th. I will be in school getting my classroom ready for the next bunch of rude kids who think they're cool and don't have to listen to me." Bella laughed quietly and I rolled my eyes at the jibe directed at me.

I stood up and went to her desk and sign on her little line, not bothering to even glance at it. Bella wheeled closer and then signed it as well. I left the classroom almost pleased with myself. Bella would do most of the work and my grade would be raised because of it.

Why couldn't all my teachers think like Ms. Wilson?

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. Martin wondered why I had been called to stay but was gracious enough to not bring it up around the guys. They wouldn't let me off without knowing and then I would have to listen to their goading.

I was walking with Martin at the end of the day to the door by the library. We laughed mischievously as we parted and Bella raised an eyebrow at me but didn't say anything. She was quiet and somewhat thoughtful as we started to walk down the familiar pathway.

"Can I ask you something?" She asked tentatively without turning to face me like she often did when we spoke. I replied telling her she could, though there was some rightfully placed warning in my tone.

"Why do you associate with those guys who are so much trouble?" Bella asked me curiously. Her voice wasn't judging but I still didn't like the questioning tone in it. It made me uneasy.

"It's not just them. I'm trouble too," I told her, feeling like she was judging though she did try to stay indifferent.

"I just don't know how you trust them, since they don't seem like the best of people to surround yourself with, especially Mitch and Martin-" I cut her off angrily before she could continue.

"You have no right to say that," I snapped, "Those other guys may not seem like they're good Bible readers like you, but Martin is a true friend, and despite what you think I am capable of knowing what is best for myself. Martin is a good guy." I wished that I could walk away now, like most people did, and end the conversation but that was not possible, which just added more anger to my blood.

"I was just saying that-" Clearly she didn't understand that the discussion was done.

"You were making an uninformed judgment based on your prejudice against anyone who does not fall into your strict guidelines of a good person." I snapped at her once more, heavily irritated that she felt so superior that she could look down on people like that. And Martin! She knew nothing about him or how he had helped me.

"I'm so sorry, you are right. I know I shouldn't said that. But sometimes I can't help myself, I just want what's best for everyone and I have been trying to learn to shut up…" she sighed brokenly, her breath getting caught in her throat. I froze. She still hadn't looked at me and I had a hunch she was crying now. I closed my eyes before I stopped walking and went to kneel on in front of her. The feeling of the rough, unmoving cement met my knee.

"Hey, it's okay. No harm done," I tilted her chin to look at me; her eyes were brighter from the tears that were threatening to leak out. My anger mostly dissolved by witnessing her remorse.

"Martin's a good guy. Just give him a shot. Okay?" She swallowed and nodded with a small movement of her head. I had no idea that my lecturing would push her so close to tears. I didn't really like that feeling at all, I realized as I awkwardly touched her knee and stood back up to walk behind her again.

"So any plans for our project?" I asked her after I couldn't take the tense silence any longer. I had lasted about 22 seconds, but I was uncomfortable being in uncomfortable situations. Because that made sense I thought sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

My diversion worked well and she started to talk excitedly about her ideas, using her hands animatedly to express her mind. I was thankful that she seemed to have already forgotten about my snap. If there was one thing guys didn't do, it was girls with tears.

That came out wrong.

No pun intended. Seriously.

Soon we were at her house and I was not even truly surprised to see my mother's car in their driveway again. I still had no idea why she was here, but the more perverted side of my mind told me that everyone had needs and I didn't want to know. But that was only the perverted side.

"Kids! I just made some lemonade! Would you like a glass?" My mom was standing in the front door, looking as lovely as ever. I just nodded and pushed Bella towards that direction, thinking how it was slightly weird that I was being invited to linger at the Swan's house by my mother.

And I was a little irritated at being referred to as a kid.

Esme came out the front door with three glasses full of sweet yellow liquid and Emmett followed behind her with one glass and a plate of brownies that I had smelled my mom baking yesterday.

We exchanged pleasantries while I chugged down half of my lemonade and ate two brownies. Emmett was asking Bella what was going on in school; a routine I assumed.

"Oh! I knew I liked Ms. Wilson! She always seemed like a reasonable and likable woman. This seems like a great idea!" My mother seemed so enthused by the idea of our project. Well, I thought blankly, that made one of the Cullens excited about the idea.

"What did you say it had to be about?" Emmett asked her. What surprised me- well, nothing about their family really surprised me anymore, but still- was that he seemed genuinely curious about some dumb high school biology project about pond water and its surroundings. It sounded sure as hell boring to me.

Bella answered him, totally in her element talking about school like it was God's gift to the world. I sighed, slightly amused by my thoughts- in her opinion it probably was.

"The only problem is I don't know where to locate a pond! It could be a lake too, but I'm not sure where the best one is that we could research without being interrupted or out studies disturbed." Bella said. I just rolled my eyes. Of course.

My mom looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I gave her a pointed look, silently reminding her that we were not one of those families that did that silent language crap, so I had no idea what she meant.

The contradiction of those two statements went way over my head.

"You really didn't even think about it?" She asked me in curiousness, though I had absolutely no clue what she could be talking about. I didn't really think about a lot of things. I shook my head in answer.

I took another drink of my lemonade, enjoying the feeling of the cold liquid rushing down my throat and the bittersweet taste that it left in my mouth. I reached out for another brownie and ate that before taking another drink.

"Why don't you do go to the cabin? We haven't been there in awhile but that lake would be perfect, you could even make it a little vacation if you wanted to," my mom explained to me and I stiffened.

I had completely forgotten we had a cabin, or cottage, or lakeside home; however you wanted to refer to it as.

It was Southeast of Cedar Springs, a good hour and a half drive if the traffic wasn't too bad. We used to spend part of every summer there when my dad was alive. My mom and I hadn't gone back there for a while. Last summer we went for a weekend, but I had no interest and she didn't like being away from her work, and it made her uneasy there without her husband.

It was a white little cabin, with a front porch half the size of the house with a roof on top and no railing. The house itself had wooden flooring and a kitchen in the far left corner when you walked in. In the closest left corner was the very comfortable couch and two arm chairs along with a coffee table that was made of the same wood as the floor.

We had our record player in the right corner closest to the porch and front door with a shelf of the records we didn't listen to as often and felt we could leave there. On the far right corner was a little white table and four chairs on each side of it. Mom had always decorated using some of the wild flowers that grew around the house.

There was only one bedroom. In between the record player area and the table was a small hallway with three doors. On the left was the bedroom, and then the bathroom was on the right along with a closet where we kept games and blankets.

Directly facing the porch was the lake. It was huge, but it wasn't small either. We had some grass land and then there was a beach that was about 15 feet from the grass to where the water was, and that ran on for about 60 feet. We had bonfires there sometimes.

And then we had a wooden dock that stretched out about 30 feet into the water. The few trees were mostly scattered around the house, so there weren't really any near the water, so I couldn't have a tire swing when I was a kid. On the side of the house was a garden of wildflowers that mom loved to see bloom.

We only had one neighbor and he and his wife lived down farther, not invading our space. He took care of the place when we weren't there. It felt like forever since I was there.

"I had forgotten," I said dryly after the memories of that place assaulted my mind fiercely.

"I think it would be perfect, you two must go. I can go with if you like." My mom offered hopefully as she began to grow more excited, "Oh I would love to see that garden again. But there's only one bed…perhaps Edward and I could share that while…no I wouldn't make Bella sleep on the couch, maybe she could have the bed, I'll take the couch and Edward can have the floor. We really should have designed for more company but at the time…." My mom just continued to ramble on before Emmett had the chance to tell her to stop.

"Sounds good," Bella smiled at my mom's excitement.

"Yeah, it'll be a blast," I muttered before chugging down the rest of my drink.


Chapter song: Whataya Want From Me by Adam Lambert


Hmmmm...wonder how that'll work out for them...(:

Haha, topic of the day: The Vancouver Olympics.
What do you guys think?
I'm pretty pumped by watching them...(:

~Carmen

P.S. Hope Valentines Day was amazing? Anyone do anything uberly fantastic?