Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I've had a lot to do lately – emotion rollercoaster and all that.

Thanks to my readers – I never thought I'd get any alerts. You guys are all kinds of amazing.

But here's your update!

"Edward Cullen, Sir," Edward said, standing up and holding his hand out to Charlie. Charlie took it, shaking it firmly, while maintaining eye contact with Edward. It may have been Bella's imagination that Charlie's hand twitched towards his gun.

"Dr. Cullen's son?" Charlie grunted.

"Yes, sir."

"Edward moved here a couple of days ago," Bella supplied.

"Met your folks today. Nice people." Charlie released Edward's hand. "What are you kids up to?"

"Studying. We're partners for Biology." Bella shuffled uncomfortably. "I told you I had a friend over?"

"Right. Nice to meet you Edward." Charlie broke eye contact with Edward and turned to Bella. "I'll be watching the game, Bells."

"No problem." Bella breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure how her Dad would react to finding a boy in the house, even if the reasons were as innocent as a group project. It could have been much worse. "I'll bring you some lasagne."

"Thanks, honey." Charlie ambled off to the other room and a moment later they heard the low mumbling of the TV.

"So, that was your Dad."

"Yeah. Sorry about that – I didn't mean to just, you know, drop you in it."

"He looked kind of surprised."

"I guess."

"Doesn't he often come home to find boys in the house?"

Bella blushed. "Not really."

"I find that hard to believe."

Bella blushed harder. She stared at her feet, knowing she'd blush even harder if she looked at him.

"I, um, better go do the lasagne." Bella pulled out the remaining lasagne, putting some onto a plate.

"It's getting late," Edward said. "I should probably go."

Bella glanced at the clock and was surprised to find that it was almost nine o'clock. "Wow, it is late." She put the lasagne in the oven. "I'll walk you out."

Bella walked Edward to the door quietly. It was Edward who broke the silence as he stood outside the door. The moon was out, big and bright, but Bella spared little thought to it – her attention was focused on the way that the moonlight made Edward's skin silver, and his eyes twinkle.

"It would seem we're destined not to get any work done tonight," Edward commented.

"I guess not," Bella said.

"Maybe we could try some other time?"

Bella hoped that the darkness covered her blush. "Yeah. I could go for that."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, then?"

"Yes. Biology."

Edward smiled at her. "I'll look forward to it." With that, Edward raised his hand in farewell and retreated towards the shiny silver Volvo at the end of the drive.

"Me too," Bella whispered to herself.

Charlie was still in front room watching TV when Bella handed him his plate of lasagne. Bella picked up The Great Gatsby from where it still sat on the side. It seemed like weeks ago when she had sat down on the sofa, settling in for the night.

"I didn't know you had a guy round, Bells," Charlie said gruffly.

"We're partners on a project, Dad."

"I know, honey." His eyes were still focused on the TV. Charlie had always had trouble with emotions. It was a trait that Bella had inherited from him. "I trust you, Bells."

Bella was unsure of what to say, but settled for, "Thanks, Dad. Love you."

Bella didn't think she'd ever look forward to a day at school, but she had to admit that she was. She was practically skipping in to school, arriving even before Alice.

"Hey Alice!" she called happily as she saw the tiny girl glide towards her.

"Hey," she replied, smiling. "You're early today."

"Am I?"

"Yes, you are. This couldn't be anything to do with –"

"Look! It's Rose!" Bella interrupted, pointing towards her, and effectively ignoring Alice.

"Hmmph."

"Hey, bitches," Rose greeted. "What's up?"

"Bella is in love with her lab partner," Alice blurted.

"Alice!"

"What?" she asked, feigning innocence.

"I can't believe you just said that," Bella complained. "That is so not true."

"But it so is."

"Wait," Rose interjected. "Edward is your lab partner, right?"

"Yes," Alice supplied.

"Well he's a cutie, Bella," she commented. "But what about The Rule?"

Before Bella could reply, someone appeared next to her. Emmett. He was huge, easily the biggest person she had ever seen, but was really quite a sweetie. Oh, and he completely and utterly adored Rosalie.

"I heard someone say cutie," he said, by way of greeting. "Were you talking about me?" He slid his arm around Rose's shoulders, but she shook it off.

"No, Mr. Ego. We weren't talking about you." The bell rang overhead, loud and piercing.

"We better get going," Bella said, trying for casual.

"Someone sounds a bit excited for Biology." Alice shot a sideways glance at Bella. "I wonder why that is."

Bella ignored her comments as she shot off towards the door. Alice followed behind her, glancing around. After a few moments, Jasper joined her, linking his hand in hers. Rose followed them with Emmett tagging after them.

"I'll see you later," Bella called over her shoulder to them.

"Bye, babes! Go get him!" Rose yelled back. Bella was glad that they couldn't see her blush.

She tried to calm herself down before entering the lab by taking some deep breaths at the door. Lauren gave her a scathing look as she passed. Bella followed her inside. She ignored the small flip in her stomach as she saw Edward was already sitting there. If possible, he looked even better today. He was wearing a dark grey shirt that clung to every muscle and emphasised the paleness of his skin. His hair was in its usual disarray. As Bella scooted past his chair, she ignored the electricity that passed between them when their arms brushed.

She'd been ignoring a lot lately.

"Good morning, Bella."

"Good morning."

"So, we didn't really get round to discussing an idea last night," he started. "So I looked through syllabus. There's lots of stuff on plants. We could do something about mitosis and meiosis."

"That sounds…fun."

"You're right. It sucks."

"Good morning, class!" Mr Banner announced. Bella reluctantly turned away from Edward to listen. "It seems very few of you have come up with an idea for your project." Bella lowered her head guiltily. "I've drawn up a list of suggested topics, coming from the syllabus. There're some very interesting topics for you." Bella could have sworn she heard Edward chuckle quietly beside her. "However, if you prefer not to use any of these, you can choose your own topic."

He produced a pile of papers from his desk and handed them to the front table. "Pass them around now, Downing. Now – other students in the past have taken a more psychological route as opposed to a strictly biological approach. That's fine too.

"I'm going to give you until the start of next week to put together your ideas. I want a question and hypothesis," he continued. "Ok guys. Carry on."

The pile of papers came to Bella and she took one of the top, passing the pile to Edward. They both sat quietly and studied their lists.

"Well, those topics are all crap," Edward declared. "Unless – I mean - did you want to do any of those?"

"Um, no. They're all pretty terrible."

"Well, then, we'll have to think of something else."

Bella bit her lip unconsciously. She'd always wanted to take psychology but it wasn't offered at her tiny school of Forks High. Maybe this would be her chance?

"Um, if you wanted, we could maybe do a psychology kind of thing?" Bella suggested. She paused before adding, "I've always wanted to do psychology."

"Really? How come you didn't?" he asked.

"They don't offer it here."

"Well, we'll get your psychology in here then," Edward stated. Bella was secretly delighted that he had liked her suggestion. "Any particular subject?"

"I don't really know that much about it."

Edward looked thoughtful for a moment. "I had a friend who did psychology at my old school. She used to talk about it all the time." Bella felt a strange pang in her stomach at 'she'. "She said perception was a really interesting subject."

"Perception sounds great!" Bella said excitedly. "Unless you want to do something else?"

"No! No, perception sounds cool." Edward smiled at her, and Bella felt a smile lighting up her own face.

The moment, however, was broken by Mr. Banner. "Well…Swan and Cullen. How are we getting on? Any ideas yet?"

"We were considering doing something on perception." Bella supplied.

"Perception. Yes…interesting topic. What specifically would you be looking in to?"

"Maybe age differences," Edward suggested.

"Or gender differences," Bella countered.

"Or both," Edward finished.

"Well, you two seem sorted." Mr. Banner nodded in a satisfied way. "Carry on."

As he left, Edward winked at Bella. "That went well."

"We seem to have our topic."

"Yeah." Edward moved his hand to the back of his neck. "I'm home alone tonight. Considering we seemed to have been destined not to work yesterday, do you want to try again tonight?"

"That sounds – Shit. Is it Wednesday?"

"Yeah," Edward said, looking at her curiously.

"It's girls' night. I'm sorry! I can't bail."

"Girls' night?" Edward asked, an amused look on his face.

"Um, yeah. It's tradition. Every Wednesday, me, Alice and Rose get together and do something, while Jasper is hanging with Emmett. It's like couples night off," Bella clarified.

"Girls' night. Ok. Well we can arrange something tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow. Just can't do Wednesdays."

"Have any other crazy traditions I should know about?"

Bella was saved from telling Edward about once a month Saturday sleepovers by the bell.

"Saved by the bell," Edward laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Bella liked the sound of that.

So they've got their topic.

I might try for a double update this week?

Reviews make me feel better. 3