A/N: Here's the second one; enjoy and please review! I was jumping in my seat when I wrote the end of this, I swear. I'm surprised I didn't wee my pants. XD

And I'm still looking for suggestions for what should happen next. I know that you guys probably wouldn't mind if it had no plot, but I would. So, plotness! Please! Otherwise I'll just write whatever random junk comes to my mind, and I'll probably never finish it. (Ha! I'm like a little psychic.)

BPOV

I was hesitating at the door, considering just hiding in my car until Gym. I could forge a signature and take care of it; I was undoubtedly already on the roster. Alice could help make sure of that; she really, truly didn't want to move. Not from someplace so nearly perfect. Not even if we could move into a town with an actual mall, she wanted to stay. To finally have a chance to finish high school for the first time in quite a while, thanks to various factors.

Especially while we were new and skepticism was fresh.

I sighed, placing my hand on the doorknob and bracing myself for the impact of his scent. I knew that I could never be fully prepared, but I could handle it. This was my only class with him; I could stay drastically away from him the rest of the time. I couldn't let him affect my life like this; I was going to have a nice, semi-normal life. And there was nothing that this tasty-smelling boy could do to stop me.

I took one deep breath and refused to breathe, opening the door. It creaked open even worse than the door at the office had, and I rolled my eyes. Like my arrival needed to be announced in such a small school.

I walked past him, who had his eyes closed and was leaning back in his chair, but not in a sleepy kind of way. He looked as if he was concentrating hard.

I tried not to think about him, but couldn't force his peaceful face out of my mind. I just decided to try and replace the smell that was sure to overwhelm me as soon as I opened my mouth to speak with the picture. Maybe it would do me some good, thinking of him as an innocent little squirrel who I never considered hunting, even when my eyes were pitch-black.

I stopped in front of the teacher and braced myself, opening my mouth to say, "Hi. I'm Bella Cullen. I'm sorry I'm a few days late. I got sick."

I was right; it was every bit as bad as I'd been bracing myself for. And worse. I'm surprised that the scrawny little biology teacher made it out without a single scratch. With immense effort and all of my control, I managed to shut off my breathing and stay locked in place without my expression changing. I think I felt my eye twitch, but that wasn't too odd of a motion; the human mind registered it as a blink unless they were concentrating.

"Oh! Bella, it's nice to see you're feeling better."

I handed him the paper he had to sign, cutting him off. "I need you to sign this." Again, I almost lost it, wishing desperately that I had a stress ball or something else to keep myself from being so stiff. But I'd probably just crush it anyways, regardless of what it was.

He quickly signed it and muttered a few things about a book and "easy A's," then said the one thing that I do remember perfectly. "We only have one seat open, next to Edward over there." He pointed to an open seat, and I chuckled slightly under my breath.

Edward… did anyone really go by that anymore? I thought all of them were either called Ed or Eddie, for the most part. Nice to see some traditionalism for a change.

"So he'll also be your partner for labs." He said, and I merely nodded. I was still trying to focus on not going crazy as the thirst flared up in my throat.

I turned around as casually as I could, still not breathing, and froze when I saw who the only open seat was next to.

It was him. Still leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, but his face was no longer peaceful, but stressed and tense, like he was bracing for something. Was he asleep after all? And having a nightmare?

I shook my head and finished walking the small distance, sitting down in my seat and sitting as far away from him as was possible in the confined desk space. My worry was senseless; I was his biggest danger, not some nightmare.

I sat there for what felt like an endless eternity, trying to look like I was breathing while I held my breath the entire time. The rest of my energy was completely focused on not breathing and not killing either Edward or the desk.

Mr. Banner asked me a few questions, always skeptical when my voice replied, unwavering as ever, and gave up after a few tries to catch me off-guard. And the entire class, I could swear that Edward never moved an inch. I would have thought he were a vampire, were it not for his unbelievably, undeniably succulent scent.

At the end of the class, the bell rang, and I was struggling to move at a sluggish human pace. I needed to get a breath of clean, tasteless air, but the humans had already seen me running, and, according to Edward at least, everyone had their minds on me. Despite the fact that he looked like he was lying-my mind flashed back to that conversation; our first and last, as I would be sure of-he had no reason to, so I took it slowly, ready to be free of the confines of the accursed classroom and probably moving a bit too quickly.

Soon, however, I felt something catch on my sleeve. I could have easily walked on, but didn't feel like ripping my shirt, especially with the Alice-related issues and staring that were sure to follow. So I turned around, expecting a bookcase or something. But definitely not him. I guessed I should just give up; as long as I was in Forks, everything was always going to have to do with him. I guess my Karma was finally catching up with me.

"I don't have a crush on you, you know. If that's why you're avoiding me." I was taken aback; were all humans this forward? I guess I really didn't know all that many.

"Oh… um…" I stammered, struggling to think of something, anything to say.

"But if you do, I have no problem with that. I mean, I don't really return the favor, but we can still be friends, right?"

Oh. So that was what this was about. Alice had told me that he was desperate… but that wasn't the right word. He wasn't shy or desperate, just… straightforward. Determined. Still, it wouldn't make any difference. "…No. I don't think we can." Again, it surprised me how I was able to ignore the thirst. Minutes ago, it had almost been killing me. But now… it wasn't gone, but… weak. Deadened. Like every other human smelled, as if he was no one special and there actually was a possibility that we could be friends. But I knew better than that. We couldn't. And I felt kind of sorry for him; chasing an unattainable goal, that, were he to attain it, would prove to be an utter waste of time.

"Listen, if you see it like that, I guess we could try…" He started, unsure, but I stopped him. Such absurdities were senseless and shouldn't even be thought about, they were so ridiculous.

"No. Okay, I don't have a crush on you. I barely even know you. I've talked to you all of one times, and I don't have any feeling for you whatsoever. Not even as a friend." I paused, once again feeling sorry for him. I was being mean, but I knew that I had to. He was lucky that I was the one who he smelled good to. Not another… less civilized vampire. Even most of my brothers and sisters would spell his end if he smelled like this to one of them.

He's lucky, I tried to tell myself, but I couldn't believe it. Some part of me wanted to make it work, just because of all of the effort he was going through and the fact that he was so clueless and innocent. And because he seemed nice, for a human.

"It just won't work out, okay?" I could tell that he had questions, but I didn't give him time to ask any. I ran out the door, too fast for a human but still visible, clutching my books. If I had any tears, then I swear I would have been crying.

It couldn't work. It never would. And he was just another, unimportant human. So why did he matter so much to me?

Because the rest of eternity hinged on the decisions and responses I made. This wasn't just another day in eternity. For once, I actually had a challenge, something to distinguish between one day and the next. Something to remember.

And no matter what I chose, I knew that there was no longer any path that I could choose that wouldn't affect my existence forever.