A/N – I do not own Twilight. I am just taking the characters out for a spin.

New Friends? - Chapter Nine

Bella's POV

I made my way to the classroom for English, following the map that was in my package of papers. Not one to instantly make friends, especially given my experiences in Phoenix and the uncomfortable way I felt with all the changes I was going through, I kept my head down and found a seat at the very back of the room. I tried to avoid looking at anyone directly, peeking at people from beneath my lashes.

I jumped as someone suddenly sat down beside me and almost shouted "Hi" in my ear. I looked up and sitting next to me was a pale pixie-like girl with short dark hair. I looked around to see who she was talking to. She got an exasperated look on her face, rolled her eyes and looked straight at me.

"Yes, I am talking to you. My name is Alice."

She was literally bouncing in her seat. I just stared at her for a minute before I responded, "Uhm, I'm Bella."

"I'm so glad we met, Bella! We're going to be great friends." She looked me over for a minute, "We are SO going shopping!"

I looked at Alice for a few minutes and gave her a little smile. "Yeah, well, I don't really like to shop."

"What!?" she actually looked shocked. "Everyone likes to shop, Bella. Don't worry, I'll help you."

I just gave her a small smile but didn't reply. I wasn't quite sure what to make of her. At that moment, we heard the sound of someone clearing their throat.

"Miss Swan, Miss Cullen. If I might interrupt your conversation, we could get class started."

"Sorry Mr Banner." Alice replied sweetly.

I just ducked my head down while the whole class now turned to look at the new kid. Me. Did I mention how much I hated being the centre of attention? If not, now you know.

Alice smiled over at me then turned her attention to the teacher. The class was a little boring since I'd already read all the books from the list he gave us. I'd actually been in an accelerated program in Phoenix, so was probably about a year ahead of this curriculum. Alice looked just as bored as I was.

The morning continued the same way. Angela was in my math class but since she already had a table partner, I ended up sitting with a girl by the name of Jessica. She seemed nice enough but there was just something about her. Maybe it was my "wolf senses", I thought wryly. I just felt that there was something she was hiding from those around her. She might be like some of those girls in Phoenix, who are nice to your face and badmouth you behind your back.

I shrugged. Maybe I was just being paranoid. It wasn't like I had a line-up of people that wanted to be friends so I just decided I'd take her at face value and see what happened.

Lunch time finally arrived and I waited at the classroom door for Angela to gather her books. We stopped by our lockers quickly and headed to the cafeteria. I stopped at the doorway to look around and get my bearings. My eyes froze suddenly when they came to the table where Alice was sitting.

There, sitting at the same table, were 4 of the most attractive people I had ever seen. They were all as pale as Alice and my attention seemed to be hooked on them. Angela and I got into the line up and grabbed our lunch. We found a table that was right in the line of sight of Alice's table so I could still check out the other people there while we ate.

Sitting right next to Alice was a blonde guy with warm golden eyes and a beaming smile. He seemed to only have eyes for her. Even when his attention strayed to the others sitting at the table, he always seemed to be drawn right back to her. Next to him was a huge guy and I mean massive. I'm pretty sure his muscles had muscles. Like wow! I wondered if he was on the football team or something. And he was really cute too! He had his arm around the shoulders of the beautiful blonde girl sitting next to him. It was obvious in how he looked at her that they were a couple. She looked like she could have been a model. My eyes continued around the table and stopped at the last person.

Oh. My. Gods. He was beautiful! I couldn't stop staring at him. His hair had auburn highlights and was a mess, like he had been running his fingers through it all morning. I didn't have words to describe him. My eyes followed the line of his square jaw to his lips. I had this sudden urge to walk across to their table and kiss him. Suddenly, his head whipped around and he was staring right at me with a puzzled look on his face. I quickly turned away and looked at Angela. She was watching me with a cat that ate the canary grin.

"I knew it." She said. "It never fails! One look at the Cullen family and people's minds go to mush.

"The Cullens?" I looked at her for a second like I was coming out of a fog before it registered what she said. "Who are they?"

"Yeah, the table you were looking at so intensely. They're the Cullens. The pixie like one is Alice and the guy staring at her is Jasper, her significant other. The next two are Emmett and Rosalie, also a couple. And last but not least, the guy with the sex hair is Edward."

"Sex hair? What the hell is that?" I chanced a glance back at Edward to find him still looking our way but now he had a bit of a smirk on his face.

"You know sex hair. What your hair looks like just after you've had sex." She explained like I was an idiot. "And Edward looks so good with sex hair, doesn't he?"

"I woudn't know but yes he does," I replied, then I laughed when her jaw dropped.

"What do you mean, you don't know? You mean you're a …." Her voice was getting louder so I quickly put my hand over her mouth.

"Shh! It's not like I want it advertised! Geez, Angela!" I took my hand away hoping she wasn't going to continue. I looked around to see if anyone had heard and saw that Edward was still looking at our table. His eyes were on me and even from across the room, I could see they were a warm golden brown just like Jasper's. He looked away quickly but I got the feeling that he knew what had just been said. I didn't see how unless the guy had super sonic bat hearing. I blushed and looked back at Angela who was still staring at me like I had two heads. Like what the hell?

"What?!"

"Nothing. I just didn't think there were any girls left our age that were still …" she lowered her voice, "virgins."

I happened to look over at the Cullen's table as she said that and once again Edward was looking over at us. I could see him say something to Alice, who looked over and waved. I gave her a little smile and waved back, not really knowing what to think.

Edward's POV

I knew the second she walked into the cafeteria. Almost every guy in the room turned to check her out. Three seconds after that, the testosterone level went up about 6 times. I was having a tough time blocking all their thoughts about the new girl. I glanced over at her but she seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact she was suddenly the main attraction in every single guy's fantasy.

Alice had already been singing her praises from the small encounter in math class. I almost got the feeling she was trying to sell me on Bella. Not sure why but.

"Oh, and Edward. She smells divine! Not like how other humans smell either. I can't quite figure it out. Maybe if you get close enough you'll see what I mean."

"Alice, I am not going to go around smelling her for crying out loud!" I couldn't believe what Alice was thinking. Was she actually trying to play matchmaker?

Suddenly the words Bella, Edward and sex hair ran through my mind from the direction where Bella and the other girl, I think her name is Angela, were sitting. I quickly turned to look over at their table and saw Bella staring in my direction while Angela was laughing to herself. I smiled while I listened to Angela explain what "sex hair" was. What will these girls think of next? I have sex hair? Who would have thought? I chuckled to myself.

"What so funny Edward?" Emmett had decided to pick then to pay attention to something more than Rosalie.

"Nothing, Emmett."

Alice just had to put her two cents in. "It's Bella"

Emmett turned to her. "Who's Bella?"

"She's the girl from my visions."

Everyone suddenly turned to her in shock. "What?"

Alice looked at them each in turn. "She is the girl from my visions. I can't believe how many times I have to repeat myself around all of you all the time. What? You can't listen the first time I say things? Bella is sitting across the room with Angela."

They all turned and looked across the room where Alice indicated.

I suddenly caught the word virgin from across the room. I looked over and saw Bella with her hand over Angela's mouth. Huh? Bella is a virgin? She must be the last one standing considering the thoughts I had had to listen to about all the other girls in this school, including Angela. Bella chose that moment to turn to look at me. I tried to look away as quickly as possible to prevent her from knowing I'd heard but I don't think I made it. I saw her blush and look away. It was then that I realized that everything I was hearing from their conversation was only coming from Angela. Bella was completely silent. I had never come across anyone, human or otherwise, that I couldn't read their thoughts.

This semester just got a whole lot more interesting it seems.

The warning bell rang that lunch period was over and we all got up to head to class, dumping our uneaten food on the way out. Next class for me was biology.

I headed straight there and took my usual seat. I was staring out the window when suddenly a scent floated across the air to me. Even though I'd just fed that morning, my mouth filled with venom and I whipped my head around to see where the scent was coming from. But not only that, my pants started to suddenly get awfully uncomfortable just as quickly. I think the second thing is what was freaking me out. I have never had THAT reaction before to just a smell.

I looked around but the only new thing I saw was Bella standing just inside the door of the lab. Crap! Alice was right. Bella did smell divine! I could smell strawberries which I assumed was her shampoo or something but besides that her blood didn't have a copper smell like most humans, there was something more and the combination smelled delicious.

Mr Granger turned and pointed to the seat next to me. Oh for fuck's sake. Could the situation get any more difficult? Now she was going to sit next to me? She walked over and sat on the stool. I tried to lean away as far as possible to reduce the scent but it was too powerful. This was going to be impossible. I glanced over at Bella who seemed to be blushing and trying to avoid looking at me. Apparently I affected her in some way as well. . I wish I could read Bella to see what she was thinking.

I was having a hard time keeping myself together. My instincts were torn. One side told me to just grab her, feed and to hell with the consequences. The other side told me to grab her and do something completely different. I was torn between hunger and lust. I couldn't do either, of course. I was going to kill Alice. She could have at least warned me. She must have known something by how she was acting at lunch.

I looked at the front of the class where Mr Granger stood wondering what the chances were that I could play sick and leave the class. Considering how much he didn't really like me, I highly doubted he would let me go.

I tried to keep from looking at Bella for the next hour but my eyes kept being drawn back to her. I had to keep swallowing the venom that filled my mouth and my other "problem" was getting pretty uncomfortable.

Finally the bell rang; I grabbed my books and literally ran out the door.