A/N: I do not own Twilight. Not no way, not no how!
After my run-in with Psycho One, the Police Force of Forks was back on full alert. There was always an officer stationed outside the house. There were another two on foot at the high school, and Charlie was driving me everywhere. The only time I ever got a break from one officer or another was when I was with Edward. Charlie thought that I was safe with Edward; I thought Charlie was off his rocker! Not that I didn't appreciate the space, but the thought that Edward could actually protect me from Psycho One was just ridiculous. Psycho One is a grown man on a mission, Edward is a teenage boy with a crush. But when we were alone in his car, I actually did feel safe. Which was why I had talked Charlie into letting Edward drive me home from school today. The only thing I had to do was get through school today, which I figured would be hell-a challenging because I was going stir-crazy with all the men in uniform and armed with guns. But I was going to put on my game face and try to get through it.
By the time lunch came around I was in THE WORST mood ever, which was blatantly obvious to everyone at the table when I sat down, slammed my books on the table, and proceeded to glare menacingly at the tray full of vegetables in front of me.
"Do you want to tell us about it?" The Pixie asked as she delicately moved the tray from my site. She moved it like she was afraid I would attack her if she took the tray too fast.
"No." I said. If it had been anyone else in a bad mood, I would have accused them of acting like a sullen five-year-old. But with the mood I was in, the first person to crack a joke would lose their head.
I sat there fuming for several minutes before I realized that Edward's hand was in mine, and his thumb was massaging gentle circles onto the back of my hand. I looked up at him and his eyes looked so caring that I instantly felt some of the anger start to seep out of me. His eyes turned lighter as if he was laughing at his own joke.
"What?!?" I asked, perturbed at not being in on the joke.
"I didn't realize it would be that easy."
I pulled my hand out of his and continued to stare at the table, trying to get myself angry again. When I felt a kick to my shins I looked up.
"Ouch Alice! What the hell?"
"It wasn't me…" The Pixie said innocently.
I peered around the table and noticed The Supermodel glaring at me.
"What? What can I do for you? Wanna kick me again? 'Cause a justifiable reason to kick the crap out of someone would make me really happy right now."
The Supermodel glared at me for another minute before standing huffily and leaving the table.
"Real nice Bella." The Bear said as he chased after the blond goddess. What did she have to be angry about anyway, she was gorgeous and perfect. Did she wake up with a split-end or something?
"Bella, come on, let's go for a walk." Edward grabbed my hand and tried to pull me out of the cafeteria.
"I don't want to go anywhere Edward!" I said, a little too loudly.
"Then why don't you tell me why you're acting pre-menstrual?"
I just glared at him for a second.
"Edward. Low blow man. Low blow." The creeper said with a smirk on his face.
"I got detention, okay? I got detention for doing nothing!"
Edward, The Pixie, and The Creeper just stared at me with disbelief on their faces.
"I know, right? Ridiculous!"
"That wasn't exactly what that look was for, Bella." The Pixie said gingerly.
"What did you do?" Edward asked.
"I didn't do anything." I lied.
What I had really done hadn't really been nothing at all. I turned to my audience and began telling the story about what happened in second period.
When I walked in the door everything was fine, I made my way to my seat and started my usual daydreaming without any problems. It wasn't until about halfway through the class that I started to notice the snickering. The teacher had left us to read our book assignments and all of the students were supposed to be pouring over To Kill a Mockingbird. Now, I may have only read it twice, but there was nothing in there that would cause Jessica and her posse to all sit there snickering. I looked over towards the snickering and realized that a bunch of them were staring at me and laughing. Jessica finally got up and came over to my desk. She knelt down and whispered in my ear while she showed me the image on her cell phone, 'Not just the School Psych's son, but the School Psych as well? I bet you've got your hands full with them, huh?' It was a picture of me grasping onto The Shrink while sitting in the mud in front of the school. Before I even knew what I was doing I had launched myself out of my chair and was on top of Jessica in a second.
The teacher pulled me off of her mid-scratch and sent me to the principal while sending Jessica to the nurse. Knowing Jessica, little miss perfect pants probably didn't even get in trouble.
When the principle found out what was happened he sentenced me to detention, saying he understood I was under a lot of stress as of recent, but if it happened again he would have to call Charlie.
"So, you can't drive me home from school today because I have to stay after school and go to detention." I told Edward. I just sat there for a second while Edward studied me, the bell rang and Edward walked me to class. He gave me a hug and whispered, "Don't worry about it," before depositing me into my class.
The rest of the day I was on my best behavior, because I knew that if the principle called Charlie I would be out of here. And as much as I hated this school, I didn't want to leave it for anything.
School was finally over and I was making my way to the detention office. I was constantly looking for Edward hoping that maybe he would have walked me to detention and said good bye before I had to go and sit through an hour, at least, of pure hell.
I reached the door and a frown settled on my face as I realized that Edward must have already left. I opened the door to the detention office and tripped over my own feet, out of surprise. There, sitting in a desk, was Edward with a smug smile plastered on his face.
I walked over to him and sat next to him.
"What? How? Why are you here?"
"I got detention."
"How?"
"Well, that's actually I kind of funny story. Wanna hear it?"
"Of course!" I said, my bad mood suddenly gone.
"Let's see, it started in math when the teacher asked me to come to the board to solve a problem. I just looked at the guy and told him no. Then he said, 'That wasn't exactly a question Mr. Cullen.' And then I said, 'Well it was phrased like a question." So then he told me to come to the board and solve the problem, so I told him to F-off. Just in slightly more offensive terms."
"You did not!" I said with a highly amused smile on my face.
"I did. And then he just stared at me. 'Beg your pardon," he said. I replied with a, 'you heard me.' This was about the time when his ears turned as red as his face. Then he said, 'Normally I would send a student to the principal's office for this, but seeing how your father is the school psychologist, I'll just send you to him and let him deal with you. Good bye Mr. Cullen.'"
"Really?"
"Really. It actually pissed me off a bit, because I thought that my plan had failed and that I wasn't going to get detention after all. But when I got to Carlisle's office, he surprised me." He took a moment to pause for dramatic build up and then continued. " So I got to Carlisle's office and he said, 'Edward, why are you here?' I then told him that I had told a teacher to F-off, and yes, I did use the real word in front of Carlisle."
I sighed in astonishment.
" 'So then why did he send you to me?' I told him because the teacher said that he would let you handle it. To which he responded 'Well then, I will. Edward, you know better than this…blah, dee, blah, blah…you can sit in detention just like every other student.' I started to leave when he said, 'I really thought we had gotten over this Edward.' As I walked out the door I simply said, 'Apparently not.' Then I left his office and did a victory dance as I walked down the hall back to class."
"You did not."
"Okay, I didn't do the victory dance down the hall, but I did do everything else."
"Edward Cullen, Bad Ass Extraordinaire."
"You better believe it!" He said with a cocky smile on his face.
We both sat there for a second when a teacher I had never seen before walked into the room.
"Alright, everyone signed in? Good. Now sit here, and be quiet. I'll be back in 10 minutes."
I turned back around to look at Edward and he had a deck of cards sitting in his hands.
"Wanna play?" He asked.
"We can't. Didn't you hear? He's going to back in ten minutes. We can't play cards. This is detention, we're supposed to sit here, be quiet, and think about the bad things we've done. And if we're lucky, they'll let us write on the chalkboard. Besides, I can't afford to get into anymore trouble. One more mistake and they're gonna throw me out."
"Bella, this guy, he's not coming back until detention is over. He's going to go out and smoke a cigarette. On his way back in he's going to run into the janitor, who is a female, and they'll start flirting. One thing will lead to another and we won't see him again until detention is over."
"How do you know this?"
"Before you came here, I was the school screw up. I say that with love," he added at the hurt expression on my face. "But it's true, before you came I was the King of detention. Now I just know the ins and outs."
"Okay, well then, what shall we play?"
We were half way through our second game of go-fish when a police officer burst into the room.
"Everyone on the ground. There is a suspicious man on campus and we locking down the classrooms. I need everyone to get on the ground under the desks and try to move as close to the back of the room as possible."
The police officer pushed the teacher's desk as a blockade in front of the classroom door and then proceeded to herd us to the back of the classroom. Edward grabbed me by the arm and hauled me out of my seat and to the back of the room. He pulled us to the floor and then pulled me into his lap where he could wrap his arms around me.
"Now, don't get any ideas." I whispered teasingly into his ear.
"The only idea I'm having right now is the one about keeping you safe."
I looked into his face and saw the determination and anger in his eyes and suddenly thought my dad was right to trust Edward.
"Miss Swan, I'm going to need you to come with me."
"But I—"
"She's fine with me. I'm Edward Cullen. She's going nowhere."
The officer backed away and went to look out the window of the classroom door. He was standing next to the door when a message came over his walkie.
"Officers stand down; the suspicious character has been identified. Repeat, the suspicious character has been identified, cease lock down."
The officer ushered us out of the classroom and then turned to me.
"Ms. Swan, you'll have to come with me to the principal's office."
"But I didn't do anything wrong." I started to protest, but the officer interrupted me.
"Your father is in there."
"I'm coming as well." Edward said, with his arm still protectively wrapped around my shoulders.
The officer just nodded and directed us towards the principal's office. When we got there the principal was in his chair and Charlie was standing next to him. I couldn't see the man seated in the chair, but as soon as he turned around I recognized him, Phil was sitting in the chair across from the principal.
It took only a split second and I was walking back out the door. I heard Charlie, Edward, and the unknown police officer call out to me but I didn't turn. I just continued towards the door. I felt hands on my arms, but I shrugged them off. I felt like everything had gone into slow motion and that I couldn't get out of that office fast enough. I was almost free when The Shrink's outline was suddenly framed in the doorway. His eyes looked so understanding and yet so sad at the same time. He put his hands on my arms to brace me and took a second to really look into my eyes. He stared a moment longer and then nodded at me. It was as if we had exchanged an entire conversation through facial expressions and head gestures.
I turned around but stayed where I was. The Shrink's hands were now on my shoulders, and Edward had come to stand next to me. Edward gently laced his fingers in mine but didn't look at me. He only had eyes for the strange man in front of us.
"Bella, Phil is here because he has something he needs to tell us." Charlie looked at me and I couldn't tell if his frustration was due to Phil showing up on campus, or because I had ignored him and tried to leave. Or maybe the principal had told Charlie about my detention. Whichever it was, it wasn't inviting.
"Bella, I, I'm so sorry about your mom."
"Why don't you tell her why you're here?" The shrink said, to Phil, from behind me. The sound coming from his lips sounded more like a growl than anything else.
Phil looked truly terrified and had to swallow a few times before continuing.
"James is here. I tried to email you to warn you. I even called you a couple of times. But you never called me back, and you never wrote me back, and I couldn't get out of rehab. He said he had a score to settle with you and he had to find you. He came and visited me at rehab one day, a bad day, and I told him where you were. I didn't realize, until a few days later when I was more lucid, that I had made a huge mistake. I swear I tried to contact you."
"Where is he now?" Charlie asked.
"I, I don't know. He had an old girlfriend that lived up here. Victoria something or another."
"Is that it?" Charlie asked him.
"Yeah, yeah I think so."
Charlie nodded at the police officer next to me and the man came and picked Phil up off the chair. His hands were cuffed behind his back and his shirt had grass stains on it.
As the officer pulled him closer towards me and out of the room Edward stepped in front of me and The Shrinks hands tensed on my shoulders.
"Bella, I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen to your mom. Regardless of what you may think of me, I did love her. I loved her so much."
"A lot of good that did her." I said, having finally found my voice. The only problem with finding my voice was the subsequent finding of my tears.
Edward turned around and released my hand as he pulled me into an embrace. I felt The Shrinks hands leave my shoulders and the breeze as he walked towards the principal's desk. I continued to cry into Edward's chest as The Shrink, Charlie, and the principal exchanged words.
After I gained control of my tears I pulled away from Edward.
"Dad." I said, Charlie's head jerked immediately up from his whisper-fest with The shrink and the principle. "I wanna go home." I said as rogue tears slipped down my face.
"Okay Bells, we'll go home."
Charlie took me from Edward's embrace and wrapped an arm around me protectively. He lead us out the doors and into the setting sun of Forks, Washington. Outside there were four police cars, all with lights going. He walked me over to his cruiser and placed me in the passenger's seat. I buckled my seat belt as he got into the driver side and locked the doors.
I still had tears in my eyes as I looked out the passenger side window. Through my tears I could see Edward's car still parked in student parking. I could see the detention teacher talking to the police. I could see The Shrink and Edward make their way out of the school. I could see Edward wave and The Shrink just watch me.
As Charlie pulled out of the parking lot I could also see the faces of all the people that had been drawn to the school by the police activity. I could see the faces of concerned mothers and anxious teenagers just waiting to hear the gossip. And just as we pulled out of the parking lot of the school I could see Psycho One standing there, in his same All American High school Senior get-up. He was standing there, smiling his sinister smile and waving. I felt the words rise in my mouth to point him out to Charlie, but somewhere between my fear and my anguish the words got stuck.
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