I awoke once again to my alarm singing California Gurls, longing filling my very being as I got ready for school.

Once ready and downstairs, I found that Lijah was, of course, sound asleep. I kind of wished that he had a more normal schedule; I didn't really like being home alone at night all the time.

'Maybe I should get a dog.'

The clock on the microwave said that it was time for me to go, but my warm bed upstairs disagreed. Unfortunately I had to listen to the microwave, so I pulled out a pad and pen and wrote 'Lijah a note of goodbye.

"Left for school. Love you."

As an afterthought I decided to write, "PS, can we haz puppy?"

After that, it was out the door and back at school in too-quick a time for my liking.

The stares hadn't stopped as I set foot on to the parking lot, that part hadn't changed.

What did change, though, was the fact that the beautiful cars weren't there, and neither was my newly discovered pixie friend. In fact, none of the Cullens were at their normal hangout, and Bella was off with the group I had been coerced into at Eric's van.

Seeing as how I had no friends to hang out with, I headed over to the van. Hoping beyond hope that maybe I only had to talk to Angela, and Bella.

Bella made my spidey senses go off though. Something was a tiny bit off with her.

'Oh my God, she's a serial killer. It's always the quiet ones!'

I inwardly chuckled at my overactive, and somewhat dark, imagination.

"Hey, Dex! How was your morning?" Mike asked, instantly zooming over to my side and ditching Jessica as she glared at the asphalt.

Maybe it's because I'm pretty mean sometimes, but I was more than a little amused by Jessica's obvious hatred of me for accidentally stealing Mike's attention.

"Eh, it was okay. I mean, it's a school morning so what can really go well?" I replied.

"Haha, right you are there .Excited that your first week is nearly over?" he questioned, slinging his arm over my shoulders.

"Mmm yeah I suppose. Can't wait for the weekend," I replied.

"Oh?" Jessica butted in, "Any plans?" She spared a jealous glance at Mike and then me.

"Actually, yes," I replied simply, "but I would be happy about the weekend even if I didn't have any plans."

"Plans? What?" Mike asked, worried, "With who?"

"Uh, with me," the brunette figure of Bella spoke up.

"Where are you going?" Angela jumped in this time.

"La Push. There's a bonfire on Saturday," Bella replied.

"Oh really, what time?" Mike jumped in.

'Shizznit. NOOOO'

"Uh well the party starts at four," Bella replied.

"Are we allowed to go?" Jessica asked, jumping on to the party bandwagon.

"Um sure," Bella said, "But you'll have to find your own rides."

"I can drive everyone," Eric tossed in.

"Great!" Jessica and Mike said at the same time, making Jessica grin widely.

"Will you need a ride, Dex?" Mike asked, effectively wiping the grin off of Jessica's face.

"Umm no, Bella is giving me a ride. Right?" I asked again, tossing her a look to make sure that plan was still on. She nodded.

"Alright, cool," said Mike, "Eric, what time are we gonna be there?"

"Right when it starts," he replied.

"Bella, is this a swim party, too, or are we just hanging out by the fire and listening to the lame Quileute legends?" Mike asked, turning back to Bella.

"It's a swim party, there will be surfing if the waves are good enough," she replied.

"Wait, the legends are lame? I thought they sounded pretty interesting from what I read about the Quileute history," I put in.

"Oh they're really cool, really interesting," Mike replied.

Ben gave Mike a confused look, "Didn't you just say they were lame?"

"Oh yeah," Mike said, trying to be swift and think of a cover up, "I meant lame as in they're so good that they'll blow you away. You know? Because if you get blown away you'll probably get hurt and be lame."

The entire group just gave a "What in the?" look to him, and I rolled my eyes at his stupidity.

Before Mike could further embarrass himself or the human race, the bell to get to class rang.

He looked relieved, and all but ran to his first class, only sparing a "Bye, guys" over his shoulder.

I chuckled and made my way to first period with Angela.

.

The first half of my school day had confirmed my thoughts, the Cullens were definitely not here.

Bella chose to sit with us a lunch, obviously not wanting to be forever alone at lunch either.

"Hey, Bella," I said, jetting to her side because she would bar Mike from sitting next to me.

She looked up from her phone after finishing a text to, I guess, Bronzey and said a quick "Hello" to me.

I had already figured out that Bella was not the kind of person who wasn't all that good at conversation, but she seemed like the second least horrible person at this table next to Angela so I was going to strike a conversation with her.

"Texting your boyfriend? You miss him?" I asked, feigning humble curiosity. What? Don't judge me, I hate the guy.

"Uh, yeah, sorta," She replied, dipping back down to her phone again to read a message her phone had just received.

I didn't comment on that, spidey senses told me not to.

"So, Angela," I said, striking up conversation with her as I noticed that Mike was just about to open his mouth, "Are you going to the bonfire?"

"Well," she started, "I'm not sure. It depends on how much homework I have."

I gave her the 'oh come on' look.

"Angela, I know when someone gives a maybe answer that means no. Honestly, why don't you want to go? Is it just not your thing?"

She gave a sheepish grin as she adjusted her glasses, "Yeah, it isn't really. It's just kind of a little too loud for my taste."

Seeing an opportunity to speak, Mike jumped in

"Yeah, Angela just prefers sitting at home reading."

I was pretty sure that was meant to be an insult, but I couldn't tell for sure.

So, of course, I had to get defensive anyways.

"Reading is great! Were you not there when Angela and I were having that debate about Harry Potter?! I read all the time. Well, when I'm not practicing dance or theatre. Seeing as how I don't dance anymore, I read a hell of a lot now," I shot.

Bella decided to have mercy on the kid and jumped in to his rescue, to my annoyance.

"You dance?" She asked, sounding only mildly interested but curious enough to ask, if not for Mike's sake.

"Yeah. Well, I did. I used to be really good, too. I quit when I moved here," I responded.

"Why?" Bella asked, now confused and more curious.

"Uh," I looked at Angela as she gave me an apologetic smile, "it's just something that I did with my best friends. I met them through dance. My mom had her own studio and taught there, we all met in my mom's kiddie ballet class."

"That's nice," Bella stated, then as an afterthought, "My mom made me take ballet for a little bit when I was younger. I was just too clumsy for it I guess…"

I felt a little bad for Bella right then, I could tell she was a little sad for maybe disappointing her mother.

"I hear ya, sister," I said, "I'm one of the clumsiest kids alive when I'm not dancing, especially with guys, holy crap. That's how a guy knows I like him, I always end up doing super embarrassing and clumsy things. My last ex, I always tripped and fell on him, or one time I accidentally poked him in the eye while watching a scary movie, oh and one time I even broke his nose by standing up myself after he crouched down to help me. It was super embarrassing."

The whole table laughed at that.

"You broke his nose?!" Ben exclaimed through laughs and chuckles.

I laughed a little, too. After all, it was kinda funny.

"Yeah, I did. It was definitely the second most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me," I giggled out.

"What was the first?" Angela asked, also just recovering from a giggle fit.

"I'll tell you that one another time, it was really bad," I said, shaking my head at the memory.

"Well we're all looking forward to it," Jessica butt in.

'Oh, I'm sure you are wannabe,'

Just like that, the bell rang for kids to return back to their prison cells. I mean classrooms.

.

It turns out, Bella had a class right next door to Angela and I, so she walked with us.

We were unable to ditch Mike in walking us, but he at least got the hint and stayed silent as the girls talked.

We chatted about school, mostly about how I was liking it.

I didn't want to lie, but Bella looked pretty awkward, Angela looked kinda awkward, and I was awkward but just wasn't going to act like it. So I lied and said that school was better than I thought it would be and gave the appropriate answers to questions asked about it.

That was the most significant part. Everything else passed by like a blur, and just like that the school day was over.

I bid goodbye to my friends, yeah, I guess that's what they were now, and made my walk back home, umbrella in hand in case it rained. Thankfully, it didn't, and I ended my day doing nothing but relaxing and watching TV.