Classes eventually started, but this time the boring school routine wasn't so boring. Edward was spending every single minute of his lectures ignoring the teachers' blabla to mentally construct his new theory. He was convinced, along with his siblings, that Charlie the chief of police was the crazy cat owner.

A week ago, when Charlie Swan had gone to school to register his daughter for the new year, Edward had almost attacked him. There it had been, that intense and horrible strawberry smell. It had lingered on his clothes, taunting his no longer accustomed nose. Thankfully, the man had also smelled like the dogs he often spent time with, when he visited his friend Billy Black. That had held him back from disaster. It wasn't long before Edward realised Charlie was the cat's owner, but he wondered why he'd never noticed it before. In fact, he had many more questions and that was part of the reasons why he spent so much time thinking about it.

His daughter would be arriving from Phoenix next week and maybe he could use her then to find out more about the policeman's dark side. However, the Cullens were tempted to leave Forks and disappear right away. Never before had someone been so close to the truth. And what if the daughter knew as well? What if the word spread and people started discovering their blood-sucking nature? They couldn't risk that. Yet after ample debates, they were going to do just that. Because Edward needed it, his family had said. And because the vampires needed to find out how many knew, to manage them somehow.

Lunch time came and Alice sat next to the bronze-haired teen, at their usual cafeteria table.

"Anything?" Edward asked her. The pixy shook her head.

"Nothing" she replied. Even her visions or lack of them rather, wouldn't help them.

"Even if he is the cat guy, that doesn't explain how the fur ball got out of the hotel and why we haven't been seeing it at all" Alice added.

"We should stalk him today again" Rosalie proposed. "See if the cat's in his house or something"

"Already did" Emmett announced "This morning. It smells like the cat in there, but it wasn't there. And neither was the cop. Maybe he rides around town with the cat in the car…"

"You know he doesn't" Rosalie said, slapping him behind the head.

"We'll keep trying. If it smells like it in there, it has to be around at some time."

And yet it never was, Edward though, frustrated.

"Do you think he has a way of knowing and just hides the cat whenever we're there?" Emmett asked.

"Who knows…" Edward said before sighing heavily.

"I'm not convinced he's the guy" Jasper cut in.

"Why not"? Alice questioned.

"I had eye contact with him when he visited the school. I didn't feel any anger, or resentment, or any odd emotions from him when it happened. It's as if he wasn't involved at all. How could he fake indifference? He even gave me a small smile with a curt nod" Jasper explained.

"And there is nothing about his thoughts suggesting he knows what we are, or anything indicating he's unleashed a messenger fur ball on us. All he thinks about is how proper we are and how good Carlisle and Esme seem to be" Edward supplied.

"Not to mention, him being in love with Edward sounds ridiculous."

"In love?" Edward questions, horrified.

"Remember the poem? To the gods you were smiling, When I began falling. Nature you were caring, And to me you were dazzling?" Jasper reminded him.

Edward shivered unpleasantly at the idea of the chief writing poems under the moonlight and sighing longingly at the thought of him. Jasper snickered when he felt his discomfort.

The next week, half of the mystery was solved, only to be replaced by much more.

The new girl Isabella Swan parked her ugly car at school, got out of it and Edward had to run away. She was it! She had to be. Charlie Swan didn't smell nearly as fruity as she did. She was sickening like that strawberry smell he had cursed so much in the past couple of months.

Isabella Swan, or Bella, as she was now correcting Mike, the first guy greeting the new school toy, was the frinkin' Bella cat.

Needleless to say, he missed that day of school. Edward spent it in his quiet meadow with a pretty dizzy mind. His thoughts were spinning so fast his vampire brain had trouble keeping up. Was it really her? He was sure of it. But was she really? Could humans be cats? What was she? She was so…so neat. He hadn't seen her long, and she hadn't seen him. His siblings were probably wondering what his rushed disappearance was all about. Or maybe they knew exactly what was going on. Would they corner her after class? Would she speak? Would they hurt her?

"Of course not" he muttered to himself, shaking his head. "Snap out of it. Think straight!" Edward chastised himself for even thinking his family could be violent.

The next day, Edward didn't go to school per say. He hung out around school while his siblings attended class.

"Where's Edward, Alice?" one of the teacher had asked in first period.

"Oh he's terribly sick" she had lied smoothly "Vomiting and all. We suppose he'll be back on his feet by next week."

He spent the week spying on the school, looking for the evil strawberry girl. He examined her from afar. She had long chocolaty hair, and her eyes; they were Bella's eyes, her exact eye pigments. Except they weren't surrounded by fur. His gaze took in her creamy skin and that seemed to arouse his blood-craving monster every time. He hated it.

He wondered how he would approach the girl. Edward couldn't possibly go up to her and say "I know you're a cat because you smell like Bella and I can't read your mind."

What if he was wrong?

So he kept on observing her. And slowly he grew fond of watching her. One day in his room, he sketched her. Her frightened chocolaty eyes were the first thing on his paper. He had seen them fill with fear as they had caught sight of his siblings for the first time. She knew them, she had to. She was the guilty cat! She had looked like a deer caught in headlights but only for a fraction of a second. Bella had then gone back to her usual shy features quite quickly.

He continued drawing. He traced the thin straight nose, the prominent cheekbones and her soft jaw line ending in a pointed chin. He drew the long straight hair, darkening it with his lead and making sure to evoke the right shades to reflect the highlights in her natural hair color. He colored the eyebrows in darker tones of grey. The girl was around five feet four and she was slender. He drew that. He finished with the slightly parted lips, remembering the pale pink they were and how pointy her visible teeth seemed to be. She had unusually pointy teeth, but he supposed in wasn't enough to be apparent to the human eye. Aside from that, she was an average looking girl and she was strangely perfect.

By the time Edward finally got over his fake gastro, no one had made a move. The human cat hadn't approached them and the vampires had stayed away. What if she really wasn't a cat…but then again she had to be, otherwise nothing made sense.

Edward made the first move during biology that week. In his absence, the professor had assigned Bella as his new lab partner and it was a perfect opportunity to chat.

"Hi, I'm Edward" he introduced himself.

Bella looked at him with those wide frightened eyes he'd seen before. The initial shock gone, she smiled shyly and greeted him.

"Nice to meet you…I'm Bella." She said and a light blush covered her cheeks. At the sight of the red tinge, the poor vampire swallowed a curse and forced the blood-thirsty beast back into its cave.

"Is this your first time in Forks?" he asked her. Simple questions first, he reminded himself.

She looked at him, and then quickly lowered her gaze, feeling a bit uneasy. She hesitated before answering.

"I used to come here a lot when I was a kid."

"That's nice" he said and they kept silent for a while as he tried to take another breath for conversation without flooding his senses with her cruel smell. Meanwhile, the teacher began explaining their lab. They were to take different slides and identify the multiple phases of mitosis using a shared microscope. The teacher began distributing the material and Bella started doodling on her notebook.

"You like to draw?" he asked her and she immediately covered the spiral she'd been tracing with her sleeve, as if embarrassed by his observation.

"It was just mindless doodling" she said, with another sickening blush. He hoped she wouldn't do that too often. He was barely getting used to her scent again and he didn't think he could properly handle the sight of delicious blood flushing her skin quite just yet.

They didn't talk much after that and Edward was torn between wanting to ask the burning question and just taking it easy.

Class ended and all he had managed to do was to introduce himself.

Saturday, Edward decided to stage a coincidental meeting. He drove and parked at the convenience store near Bella's house before walking up her street. He hoped she would be conveniently outside so he could chat with her, however unlikely that was to happen. But he had to try! When he got to Charlie Swan's house, there was quite a comical scene going on. Bella was actually outside, reading her school book.

That was normal enough. The seven cats sleeping next to her weren't. Amused, Edward approached the scene with a crooked grin.

"So this is where you live" were his first words and she looked up from her book, releasing a startled gasp.

"I was heading towards the mountains for a good hike; I didn't expect to see you today" he said while widening his perfect grin.

"H-hi!" she answered him with yet another blush. Damn those tempting blushes.

"Are those all your cats or do you just shampoo with catnip?" he teased.

She looked around her, noticing for the first time it seemed, all the snoozing cats keeping her company.

"Oh, not again!" she said, half nervous, half exasperated.

"Do you not like cats?" he asked slyly.

"No, I do" she defended quickly, "it's just… in general they seem to like me a bit too much" she finished, a bit embarrassed.

Edward got closer to the chair she was sitting in and all the cats tensed. A second later, six of them ran away and the last one jumped into the girl's lap for protection.

He took another step and it hissed at him, like a normal cat would. Animals knew to fear him; they could feel the danger surrounding him and his siblings.

"It's too bad they don't like me much" he said, leaning into her. The cat scampered away while hissing and spitting fiercely.

Bella froze when she realised Edward was now close enough that his cheek was almost touching her hair. She heard him breathe in deeply. He was smelling her hair? Her heart skipped a few beats.

"It's too bad because I like them" Edward said, finishing his thought.

The vampire removed himself from her personal space before he lost control. He swallowed the extra venom slushing in him mouth and fought to keep his smile.

"Nope, doesn't smell like catnip" he said to her and she blushed again. Gosh he was going to kill her if he didn't go now.

"Smells more like strawberries…or like that cat that used to follow me around" he pondered aloud. " The only one who ever approached me…See you around Bella" he finished and quickly walked away in the direction of the mountains.

On his way to his special meadow, Edward cursed furiously. What in god's name had possessed him to do such an idiotic thing as to stick his nose in her hair? He really could have killed her.

It wasn't his fault really; there had been this magnetic pull, urging him to come closer, to be close to her. He had been caught in his playful teasing, too wrapped up in it to notice the natural pull. Maybe she was an enchantress: Bella the cat god, wooer of vulnerable vampires. He was totally screwed.

That night, the entire Cullen crew ran into Edward's room like headless chickens when they heard the familiar mew of a cat. Bella the cat was in the tree facing his window, swishing her little tail around. Her beady eyes were glowing under the moon, observing them curiously.

"So? What are you waiting for?! Open the window Edward!" Alice said impatiently, nudging him hard in the shoulder.

"This is not a good idea" he complained to them.

"Why not? What's going to happen? She's gonna kill us with her cuteness?" Emmett teased.

"How about me killing it?" Edward replied moodily.

"Edward!" Esme exclaimed in indignation.

"Not on purpose!" the bronze haired vampire defended.

"Come on, you've been around her many times and she's still alive, do it!" Alice pressured.

Carlisle, usually the wise one in Edward's opinion, didn't oppose the idea. He was probably too curious about the human-cat to think straight. In the end, the blond doctor was the one to open the window. The cat eventually bounced into Edward's room and purred when Alice scooped it up to cuddled it.

"You do remember that's Bella? As in human Bella?" Edward said, watching them with apprehension.

"So what? She likes it. Hear all that purring?" she said as she babied the furry thing in her arms.

"It's creepy" Rosalie agreed with Edward.

"It almost seems like a normal cat…sure is acting like one" Jasper commented when the purring got louder.

"Anyways, how about we leave them alone?" Esme proposed, indicating with her index Edward and the cat.

To his demise, everyone agreed and left the room. Edward wondered what was the point, when they'd be absolutely eavesdropping anyways.

When the last one out closed the door behind them, Edward turned to the cat sitting on his couch.

The poor vampire gathered his thought, sprinkled in a little courage and began the awkward conversation.

"Alright fur ball. Here's the deal…"