Author's Note: Boy talk! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Chapter 8
Edward's Point of View
After fourth period, people who were already finished with their final exams burst from the classroom and into the hallway, a new spring in their footsteps.
I, too, was finished with everything. Now, there was only one day of school left until winter break, and I was looking forward to it. My siblings would be home from college, at least.
I was walking along the hallways when someone came running from behind, then grabbed onto my shoulders to help them jump high. He left his arm on my shoulders and said, "Whoo! Finals are over, man!"
I rolled my eyes. "Are you sure you passed everything, Mike? You know if you don't get at least a C in all your classes this semester, you're going to get kicked out of the football team, right?"
Mike Newton, another one of my friends, made a face. "Hey, don't remind me. I'm just going to relax over break and then I'll worry about that when we come back. I'm pretty sure I passed though. I passed the last three years."
I gave him an amused look. "Frankly, that was just luck. And me tutoring you."
He punched me in the arm. "Hey. I'm pretty smart too. Give me some credit. After all, I got accepted at NYU."
"Yeah," I agreed. "With no scholarship. At all."
"That's why I'm going to go apply for one right now," Mike said. "The school should give me at least a couple hundred, don't you think?"
I merely stared ahead, fighting a smile.
"What about you?" Mike asked. "Have you gotten any replies yet?"
"No, not yet. Soon, I think. Maybe over break."
He snorted. "Yeah. I don't know why you even bothered filling out all those college applications when you can just send only one to, I don't know, Harvard or something, and get accepted."
"I didn't bribe any of the colleges I applied for, man," I said reproachfully. "I don't rely on my money all the time."
"That's what makes you popular," Mike sang, using One Direction's tune for "What Makes You Beautiful."
I grimaced. "What'd I tell you, back when we were in middle school? Don't ever sing. At least, not in front of me."
He grinned. "You want to sing for me instead?"
"Go away," I muttered as we passed by the office.
He finally let go of me to go inside. "See you later, Edward!"
I walked on, approaching the stairs. As I climbed the steps, I remembered Bella. I hadn't seen her in two weeks. I wondered if she was done with her finals yet.
I got distracted when a girl called my name. I looked up, only to realize that she was only mentioning me to her two friends. She was wearing a cheerleader uniform, and like all the cheerleaders at this school, she looked dangerously eager to talk about me. There was that excited spring in her footsteps and the gushing tone in her voice.
"…forget the unforgettable, sexy, handsome Edward Cullen?"
I stifled a laughter. Did all the cheerleaders at this school really think that of me? It was amusing. I wish I'd paid attention the past three years now. I would've had a source for laughter almost every day. It would've helped with the stress of the bargain I'd made my parents as well.
The girl in the middle made a strange noise, as though she'd just stopped herself from laughing at the last minute.
The girl on her right asked, "Who's that?"
Wait…I knew that voice. Her hair… Definitely familiar.
It was Bella.
Hadn't I told her my name? Had she already forgotten? It was hard to believe that she hadn't heard about me properly until now. And apparently, her cheerleader friend thought so too.
"Who's that?" the cheerleader shrieked. "Jeez, you mean you've been attending South View High all these months without even learning who he was? Where have you been your entire life?"
"The library?" Bella asked, sounding bemused. I suppressed another laughter. "Why is this Edward such a big deal?"
Yup. She'd forgotten my name already.
"Because he's the hottest guy in school!" Jessica squealed happily. "So handsome. And dreamy. And charming. And sexy. And smart. And tall. And hot. And sexy. And charismatic. And sexy. And hot. And handsome. And hot. And sexy. And-"
"I think she gets the point, Jess," the girl in the middle interrupted.
"Okay…" Bella said slowly. "But I don't get why you're practically drooling over his name, Jess. If he's such a god, then wouldn't he already have a girlfriend?"
The cheerleader, Jess, scoffed indignantly at Bella's ignorance. "If he had a girlfriend, every girl in this school would've done anything at all to tear her down from that position. And that's what we did the last three years. And if he was already taken, then every girl in school still wouldn't be staring after him dreamily when he walks past, now, would he?"
Was that really how it had been? Funny, I hadn't known. I'd always been the one to dump my ex-girlfriends. They always got too obsessive, and I lost interest.
"Poor guy," Bella said, and her friend in the middle laughed. "He must have had a hard life here in South View."
I'd had a fairly easy life here at this school, considering my family's reputation and my background. I'd always thought that it was because I didn't really care what people thought of me.
"I still can't believe he quit football," Jess grumbled. "I only became a cheerleader for the past two years so that I could see him running down the field in his uniform; do you know how hot he looks in it? I thought he would continue, because it's his last year here, but then I find out that he quit! And it was too late to back out because the teacher wouldn't let us…" She sighed in frustration.
I frowned as I continued to trail them up the stairs. That was an unreasonable reason to become a cheerleader. Cheerleading took a lot of time, much like football.
"He's a senior?" Bella asked.
Jess nodded. "He's so dreamy…" She looked at Bella strangely. "I'm sure you've seen him around at school. It's impossible to miss him. Have you never seen a handsome, sexy guy that everyone looks at when he walks by?"
I pressed my lips together to repress a smile. This was really amusing.
Bella shrugged indifferently. "Not really."
I felt a stab of annoyance. Here I was, thinking about her every single day, and she didn't even give a damn about who I was.
"It's lunch time!" the friend in the middle said happily. "That's good, because I am starving! I skipped breakfast today because I was running late." She made a face.
Bella laughed her melodious laugh as the three of them reached the top of the stairs.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the middle of the hallway in front of us. A guy on the football team seemed to have asked out a cheerleader, and now they were hugging each other while their friends cheered loudly.
Distracted, Bella lost her balance at the top of the stairs. Naturally.
Fortunately, I'd caught up so that I was right behind her. I caught her easily, then pushed her gently onto the top.
Startled, she and her friends looked back. Comically and simultaneously, her friends' eyes bugged out in shock as they recognized me. Bella blinked several times, as though she couldn't believe I was in front of her again.
I titled my head to the side, amused. "You really are accident prone, aren't you?"
Bella pursed her lips, looking irritated. "Thank…you." She looked embarrassed, and her cheeks were slightly pink.
She glanced at the students that passed by us. She seemed to feel self-conscious, wondering why they were staring.
"Oh…my…" the cheerleader friend breathed. She was gaping at me, her mouth slightly open. I could've sworn she was on the verge of drooling.
The middle friend blinked rapidly, as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
I leaned on the railing casually. "You seem to have made it through the last two weeks safely. Considering your clumsiness, I think that's a miracle." I smirked, but in truth, I was relieved. She didn't have a scratch on her.
Her two friends' eyes widened even more. They obviously hadn't expected me to speak so nonchalantly. It was strange for me to be speaking to a girl at all in the first place. Usually, the whole school would be in an uproar if I asked a girl out.
Bella didn't seem flustered or anything. In fact, I could tell that she was getting even more annoyed with me. She really didn't know who I was yet. She didn't know my background.
And I liked her even more for her ignorance.
"Come on, guys," she said, edging toward the hallway. But her friends didn't move. They kept staring at me, but I only had eyes for the beautiful, indifferent girl who apparently didn't seem to like me at all.
"Um, Jess?" Bella asked impatiently. "Ang? Aren't you coming?"
They didn't reply.
"Hey," she said, scowling at me. "Aren't you leaving?"
I couldn't help but laugh. "Aren't you being quite rude, considering the fact that I'd just saved you?"
Her mouth twisted.
"I don't know how you manage to survive through the school day, Bella," I said, purposely putting an emphasis on her name, just to show her that I remembered.
Her friends gasped, even more shocked. I guess it was. I never bothered to remember a lot of the girl's names. I only needed my mother and sister in my life; there was never a need to memorize more.
"Come on!" Bella snapped, grabbing her friends' arms. She pulled them away, saying, "What's the matter with you guys? Didn't you hear me?"
I followed more slowly this time, curious about what they were going to say.
Her friend, Ang, was muttering something that I couldn't hear because of the surrounding noises.
"I don't believe it!" Jess shrieked abruptly, making both Bella and Ang jump. She jumped in front of Bella's path and stopped her. "You know him?"
Bella frowned. "What?"
"You know him?" Jess asked loudly. "Seriously? Like, you actually talk to him, and you see him often? Are you friends? Are you dating?"
She had no idea how much I wished that were true.
"What?" Bella nearly shrieked. "No!"
"But he talked to you!" her dramatic friend said. "He totally knew your name, and he totally started teasing you, like you guys knew each other! Only friends can do that! Tell me, Bella! Do you really know him? I thought you said that you didn't!"
"What are you talking about? You're not making any sense."
By this time, I was passing by them. I didn't want to intrude in their conversation any longer anyway. I'd seen Bella for the first time in weeks, and that was enough for me.
The two friends gaped after me.
"Unbelievable," I heard the cheerleader say faintly as I walked away. "You know him."
"I don't get it," Bella said impatiently, her voice fading away. "Do you know who that guy is?"
I couldn't concentrate on my friends' conversations during lunch. They were laughing and snorting uncontrollably the entire time, but I couldn't focus. I was too busy thinking about Bella.
It was strange, but I felt as though she had gotten prettier over the past two weeks. There was this warm glow around her, an aura, that only I could see. Beautiful…
"Hey," Austin said, frowning as he threw an empty milk carton at me to get my attention. "What's the matter with you, man? You hardly said anything."
I grabbed the carton and threw it back at him. "I never do."
"True," another guy said, chortling. "Edward's pretty quiet."
"But you hardly laughed at anything," Austin protested. "It was hilarious; I was laughing the entire time. What's going on? Did something happen? Your parents? The company?"
I shook my head. "Nothing happened."
"No, no, wait," Mike said, studying me amusedly. "When a guy gets all quiet and is unable to concentrate on anything else, there's only one possibility. He's in love. You like someone, don't you, Eddie?"
"Don't call me that."
"What?" Austin said incredulously. "Edward? In love?" He began to laugh. "That's a good one." The other boys joined in.
I smiled slightly.
"Stop laughing," Mike snapped. "It's true. Tell 'em I'm right, man."
I shrugged. They all stopped laughing rather abruptly.
"Something's wrong," Austin said, his eyes narrowing. "Don't tell me Mike's right."
I smirked. "Maybe."
They all exchanged surprised looks. They knew that I'd given up trying to find someone suitable for the bargain. I guess I would be surprised too.
"Seriously?" Mike asked, looking pleased. "That's great, Edward. Who is this girl?"
I sighed. "Forget it, alright? This girl doesn't even know who I am."
"Everyone knows who you are.
"I'm serious," I said. "She has no idea. I think…I think that's why I'm so curious about her. Because she's the one person at this school who doesn't know how rich I am, or how famous my family is-"
"That's weird," Austin interrupted. "How can one not know who you are? If you told her your name, then she would know immediately that you're a Cullen. Duh. She must be pretty stupid."
I shook my head. "She's in Calculus, genius. And she's a junior." I smirked. "Beat that, Mr. Pre-Calculus."
"Calculus?" Austin mumbled. His face fell comically, looking put-out. "A junior? Damn…"
"She's a junior?" Mike repeated. He frowned. "A cheerleader?"
"No way," I said, grimacing in horror. "Do you think I'd look at those girls for even a second?"
"Who is she?"
I hesitated. "You wouldn't know her."
Austin laughed out loud. "Try us. We're jocks, man. We know every girl in this school. Even if they aren't cheerleaders."
I stabbed my apple with my fork. "Isabella Swan."
They gaped at me. "You're kidding, right?"
"What?" I asked, looking up. "You really know her?"
"Who doesn't know her?" Mike asked, chuckling. "She's that clumsy girl. Clumsy, but beautiful, for sure." He nodded. "I can see why you fell for her. She's really smart too."
"How do you know her?"
"She hangs out with the cheerleaders," Austin said, nodding towards the group of squealing cheerleaders all the way across the quad. "And she's best friends with Angela Weber."
I looked at Ben Cheney, who was sitting next to me, taking a bite of his taco. "Your girlfriend?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Bella's really nice."
I laughed once. "She seems to really hate me."
Ben looked at me in surprise. "Why would she hate you?"
I told them about how I'd met Bella. "She barely knows me, but the way she looks at me is obvious. She doesn't like me."
My friends all laughed.
"Don't worry, man," Mike said easily. "Bella's not like that. She was probably just embarrassed, that's all."
I glanced at the girls, who were jumping around excitedly, laughing shrilly over a joke someone had just told. "Do you think they told her who I am?"
"Well…" Ben said thoughtfully. "I'm sure Bella knows that you're the most popular guy at school now. That was inevitable. But if you're referring to the fact that you're from a rich family, I'm not sure. There's a good chance that they might not have; those cheerleaders can be pretty dumb sometimes."
The boys all murmured in agreement, laughing.
"Good," I said, relieved. "I don't want her to know for a while. Maybe I could get to know her without her finding out my family background. That way, if she shows any interest in me at all, I'll know if it's sincere or not."
"That's impossible," Mike scoffed. "The whole world knows who you are."
I gave him an irritated look. "All those girls I dated in the past few years only liked me for my background. I want to see if Bella's any different."
"She is," Ben said simply. "Angela really likes her. She talks about Bella a lot. And Bella isn't the type to judge people by their reputation or anything. She regards them in the way that she sees them."
I was thoughtful. I really wanted to try to get closer to her. I wondered if she would fall into a trap if I created one just for her.
"Want us to help you?" Austin asked slyly, wagging his eyebrows mischievously.
I scoffed. "With what?"
"Honestly, man," Mike said. "Bella's perfect for you. She fits the exact description of what you were looking for the past six months. You've found the girl of your dreams. Now, it's time to snag her. And that's where we come in."
I rolled my eyes.
"Tomorrow," Austin said with satisfaction. "At lunch. We'll accompany you to the girls tomorrow so you can freak all of them out. And make Bella uncomfortable. You can be talking to her, which will obviously draw a lot of attention. She doesn't like being in the limelight, you know."
"What's the point in that?"
"First," Ben chiming in. "We get to see the cheerleaders freaking out by the fact that they're within a ten feet radius of you. That should be fun. Second, you show Bella that you really are popular. Third, it's a great first step to getting to know her. Any questions?" He nudged me.
I was amused. "I don't think that's such a good-"
"Shut up," Austin advised. "It'll do you good. Just don't forget to thank us later when you end up getting the girl." He winked.
"Bella doesn't seem like the easy type," I said, suppressing a smile. My friends really were funny. And blind. And frustrating.
"She isn't," Mike agreed. "But why should she refuse you? You're rich, handsome, and popular."
"Smart too," Austin added, snorting with laughter.
My smile disappeared as I stared at the small figure of Bella, laughing with her friends. "I guess you're right."
AN: I have no idea how boys' brains work. So that's just my assumption on it. I hope you enjoyed it! Reviews, please!
