A/N: Twilight is Meyer's. No copyright infringement intended.

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BPOV

I failed a test because of Edward Cullen.

Okay. So I'm actually pretty sure I got a B. Which wouldn't be bad, normally, considering it was in calculus, the hobby of Satan. But after Principal Greene's little college pep talk, I felt like I should have done better, particularly since I could have done better if the bronze bachelor hadn't shown up to distract my already exhausted mind. After being up all night listening to the squealing of the spawn, I barely was able to focus on which class I was in, much less do math while I was there. And when Cullen showed up, all my carefully contained calculus-oriented thoughts for the day scattered like roaches. I sat through most of the test, hours after he'd left, trying to catch hold of integrals that kept getting lost in brilliant green eyes. By the time Alice and Jasper waved good-bye to me in the parking lot after school – Alice cheerfully letting me go because she'd gotten the Edward Cullen details from me much earlier – I was so tired I just wanted to put my head down on my steering wheel and sleep.

So I went to see Jacob.

I felt my head clearing as I drew closer to La Push. When I pulled up to the little faded red house near the trees at the edge of the reservation, the front door already was propped open. Jacob's father, Billy, sat in the doorway. Even in his wheelchair, his presence was enough to fill up the entire entrance. He was strong and strong-willed, an influential member of the tribe, and someone who didn't like to be taken care of despite his circumstances.

Which was why it always amused me when he met me at the door when I came to visit.

"Hey, Billy," I called as I got out of the truck and grabbed my backpack.

"Hello, Bella," he returned in his gravelly voice. He watched me close the truck's door and head toward him. His lips twitched slightly, but otherwise his face remained passive. "Heard you coming."

I fought to keep the amusement out of my smile. My truck's roar was recognizable to anyone, but particularly to him; Charlie had bought the vehicle from him. But Billy didn't fool me with his casual routine. Jacob told me he raced to the door every time he heard me coming. He looked forward to seeing me as much as I looked forward to making the trip out to La Push. "Yeah," I replied. "You get any of those cookies I sent home with Jake last week, or did he eat them all before he got here?"

Billy moved back into the house to let me pass, then he shut the door behind me. "I got a few," he said with a grin. "They were very good. Thank you."

"I found another sugar-free one. I'll try it next." Billy's diabetes had given me new reasons to search for recipes. Another reason he liked to see me driving up to the house, I mused. "Jake out back?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks." I started through the house that was more comfortable than my own, then I paused. "Um, Billy… I tried. But Charlie…"

Billy cut me off. "I know. Thanks for trying, Bella. We'll go fishing some other time."

I offered him a tiny smile. "I hope so." For a second, we gazed at one another, sharing a loss, then I turned and headed out the back door.

A short distance from the back of the house was a makeshift garage pieced together from a couple of preformed storage sheds. The main door was closed, but the walk-in door on the side was open. I could hear Jacob moving around inside. I followed the familiar sound of mechanic work and slipped through the open door.

Even with the door open, the smell of dust and gasoline and grease was overwhelming. It hit me in the face in a warm gust when I moved in out of the light rain, and I smiled and breathed it in. It was the smell of summer days and autumn evenings. It was the smell of friendship. Of Jacob's sanctuary, and therefore mine. We had spent so much time together in this garage it almost was like home, and its scent was comfort. I loved it. And I'd missed it the last few weeks.

I drew in another long breath as I headed toward the old leather swivel chair in the far corner. "Hey," I called to Jacob as I passed.

My best friend looked up in surprise. "Bella!" he exclaimed. He put down his pliers and wiped his hands on the rag he had tucked in his back pocket. "What's up?" he asked, leaning back against his car to face me.

I tossed my backpack on the floor and sat in the chair – my chair. Jacob had brought the chair in for me over a year ago when I had begun hanging out in the garage with him while he worked on his car. "Nothing," I replied. "Just wanted to come home."

Jacob's grin was enormous. He knew exactly what I meant. And he knew that he didn't have to say anything. Whether I helped him or did my own thing, talked with him or completely ignored him, our time together in the garage was important to both of us. And it was easy as breathing. Most of the time.

When Edward Cullen wasn't in my head.

Jake studied me for a second, and I knew that he could tell I was exhausted. But he didn't comment, because he knew that I just needed him to be there. He turned back to his car and leaned over the engine again, poking at some foreign object I probably should have been able to name by now. I watched him, soaking in the cheerful energy he gave off just by existing, and reveling in the soothing aura of our shared haven.

The garage was barely big enough to hold much more than his '86 Rabbit, a few narrow shelves of tools, and my "nest" in the corner. I suppose it should have felt claustrophobic to be trapped in the little cave of testosterone, but I felt safer and more relaxed tucked in my chair watching Jake work than just about anywhere else. I burrowed into the leather and pulled my feet up on the seat to wrap my arms around my knees and hold them to my chest. I dropped my left cheek to my knee and watched drowsily as Jake exchanged tools with the precision and dexterity of a neurosurgeon. It always impressed me how he could do such intricate work with such big hands.

After several minutes of nothing but rain on the metal roof and Jake's tinkering with the car's engine, I stifled a yawn against the damp knee of my jeans. "I hate calculus," I commented absently.

Jake didn't look back at me, but I could hear the amusement in his voice. "I know."

He moved around to the far side of the car. His hair hung down around his eyes to obscure most of his face, but I could see a hint of a smile. I smiled a little in response, then dragged my hands over my face and sat up. I needed to stay awake. My legs were cramping from sitting curled up in the chair, anyway. I stretched them out in front of me, then reached over to the little battered wooden cabinet tucked between my chair and the wall and pulled out the top drawer. My stash of pencils and extra sketchbooks were still there waiting for me.

Jacob never bothered my nest.

I slid my current sketchbook into my lap and opened it to a blank page. Without paying much attention, I began sketching Jake as he was, bent over the engine with his shaggy hair shadowing his features. I only focused enough to be sure Jake's image didn't end up with tousled bronze hair.

"I'm not particularly fond of boys' bathrooms, either," I remarked after a moment.

Jake's head lifted. "What?"

I glanced at his frown, then looked back down at my sketch. "Never mind," I muttered. I tilted my head at the page and shaded in part of his jaw.

It took him a minute to let it go – from the corner of my eye I could see him fighting the urge to demand an explanation – but he finally returned his attention to the engine. He trusted me enough not to push, even when his protective wolf instinct wanted to overpower the carefree puppy. He probably convinced himself he hadn't heard me right. Either way, he knew that he'd hear the story eventually.

But even if he was able to let it go, I wasn't. I couldn't get the memory of the morning's bathroom meeting out of my head. And it was a strange memory to have playing over and over. The "gorgeous bachelor" Edward Cullen, only a few feet away, looking comfortably handsome in jeans and a white button-up shirt, giving me that damn crooked smile and somehow managing to make the bathroom smell amazing the second he walked in… all set against a backdrop of vile-looking urinals.

It was driving me crazy.

I narrowed my eyes at my drawing. "You remember what you said to me?" I asked, keeping my gaze locked on the paper. I hesitated, then added, "About Edward Cullen?"

Jake shot me a smirk. "About how he was interested in more than just turkey legs? Vaguely."

I gave him a quick glare. "Don't be a jerk."

He wasn't intimidated by my warning. When he looked down at the engine again, he was still grinning to himself. "So he gave you your bracelet back?" he asked.

My expression changed. He knew that it would, and he glanced over to smile at me. To show that even though he had caught me, he wasn't angry. "Yeah, I knew you lied," he admitted. "Sort of. I knew you really did take it off to bandage your arm, so…"

"Lie of omission." I grimaced. "I'm sorry, Jake."

"It's okay. So." He studied me. "You like this guy, huh?"

"Jake…."

I felt the heat in my cheeks, and Jake grinned. "You're so shy."

He turned to go back to work and leave me alone, respecting my privacy and my feelings, and I felt a surge of affection for him. My brother. He truly cared.

So I blurted out the whole story about the bathroom.

When I finished, Jake nodded thoughtfully. "I'm willing to bet you. Fifty bucks. He shows up tomorrow."

I smiled. "What car part will I be buying you?"

Jake roared out a laugh. "So you think he'll show up, too?"

I stared past him at a wrench hanging on the wall. "He has a tendency to do that." But I wondered if he would, now that he had given my bracelet back. Now that he had no reason to. I shook my head at myself. "You want enchiladas?"

Jacob was grinning at me with entirely too much amusement. But he didn't comment on what he thought I did or didn't want. "Yeah," he answered. "That sounds great."

I slid my sketchbook and pencils back into the cabinet. Jacob lined up his tools on the shelf as I stood and grabbed my backpack. He and Billy were partial to my Mexican dinners – all of my friends were, actually, I mused, recalling that I owed Angela some quesadillas. There were no decent Mexican restaurants in Forks, and my friends found my southwestern upbringing to be authentic enough for them.

Billy was waiting inside for us. He hovered just outside just kitchen, observing without seeming overly interested as Jacob "helped" me cook. But I caught his smile when he realized what I planned to make.

When I departed a while later with containers of food for home, I left Billy and Jake just settling at the table to eat. They looked like eager little boys, their eyes wide and shining as they stared hungrily at the food piled in front of them. As usual, they wanted me to stay and eat with them, but I had to get home before Victoria called me. And I didn't make it to the truck before my cell was ringing in my backpack.

But I left the house with tough Billy Black's eyes on me, full of an affection he didn't think I could see, an affection I held on to the whole way home. An affection I kept holding on to through a night of dishes, laundry, cleaning, and homework, all set to the tune of spawn babble as they incessantly discussed the morning's visit that they still didn't know had been about me.

The very visit that kept replaying over and over in my head.

Urinals and all.

EPOV

I couldn't get the image out of my head: Bella Swan, wrinkling her nose at the urinals. It was just so damn cute. I caught myself smiling at the memory at the most inopportune moments.

Like now.

Rosalie raised a perfectly manicured brow at me. "What's so funny?" she demanded.

"Nothing," I replied. I tried to bite back the grin, but I couldn't. Instead, I leaned back against the locker next to hers and propped my calculus book open along my forearm. I could smile safely at it.

Rosalie rolled her eyes and went back to the mirror that hung inside the door of her locker. She was carefully fixing her eye makeup. I didn't know why. School was over. We were about to head home. And I was pretty sure she was just going to go work on her car.

Emmett sauntered up. "Hey," he greeted Rosalie. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him. I made a face as he kissed her. Then I grinned to myself as my expression brought back Bella's wrinkled nose again. When Rosalie began fixing her lipstick, Emmett turned to me. He immediately knew what the smile meant. "So you know her name now," he mused.

"Bella Swan." It felt good to say it out loud. I smiled a little wider.

"I can't believe Jasper did know her." Emmett looked disgusted.

Rosalie leaned a little closer to the mirror. "Jasper's weird," she offered.

I nodded. I could see that. Emmett shook his head. "I'm just glad you finally got to talk to her, man. And I'm proud of you for going all out. Right to the school after her, dude. Finally. After just sitting around holding that bracelet all weekend. It's about time."

"So he knows her name." Rosalie put the lid on whatever makeup she'd been using and opened another tube. "Big deal. He only talked to her for five minutes. He skipped school and went to Forks this morning for that? I mean, really. You could have just given the bracelet to the lost and found and saved yourself a lot of trouble if that was all you're going to do."

Leave it to Rosalie. Always blunt. "Thanks, Rose," I replied.

She shrugged and slid the last tube into her bag. "Just saying." She closed her locker as her best friend, Renesmee Higginbotham, wandered up to meet her. "Hey, Nessie. You ready?"

"Yeah. Hey, Em, Edward. See you guys later."

I waved absently as the two girls wandered off together. Renesmee, whose name was some sort of combination of family names, was further evidence of Rosalie's complexity. She was the only other person who knew that Rosalie liked to work on cars – the two had met at an auto parts store when Rose had decided to stop pretending that Emmett was the one looking for spark plugs one day – and she was Rosalie's antithesis in almost every way.

Several inches shorter than Rose with reddish curls and brown eyes, Nessie was a tomboy. She wore jeans and T-shirts while Rose wore skirts and blouses. She didn't wear makeup while Rose had just spent ten minutes fixing hers. And she proudly enrolled in auto shop while Rosalie's interest in cars was an impressively kept secret. Even their shared interest ran on opposite ends. Ness liked classics, and Rose tended to like new, flashy cars. But all the differences didn't matter. They clicked. And seeing perfectly groomed Rosalie walking beside Nessie in her cargo pants and tank top still amused me every time.

It made me wonder now, for a moment, if Rosalie would get along with Bella the way she did with Nessie.

Emmett snickered. "Ness just passed Rosalie a wrench."

"Your girlfriend's got issues," I replied.

"Black market tools," he agreed. "So Bella Swan. Rose has a point. You gonna do something about her?"

"I'm not going to do anything about her," I muttered.

Emmett stared at me. His face was almost comical in its shock. "What do you mean? Dude. You obsessed over her jewelry, man. For days. And you went looking for her at her job. Then you finally had the balls to hunt her down this morning and get her name, and you're not going to do anything about it?"

"Emmett…" I trailed off. I liked it better when he was a big goof. When he was as blunt as Rosalie, it was annoying. "You don't understand."

"I don't—" He broke off with a muffled curse. "Tanya alert," he spat, grabbing my elbow and giving me a rough yank away from the lockers. He did an about-face and started walking rapidly in the opposite direction. I fell in beside him easily. Even though he was taller and more aggressive, I was faster, and we kept an even pace down the hall and out the doors. Tanya never caught up.

"So what don't I understand?" Emmett demanded when he got in my car in the parking lot to finish the conversation. "Clearly you like her. You can't tell me you don't. Even if you hadn't acted like an obsessed stalker all weekend, you've been grinning like an idiot all day."

"An obsessed stalker," I complained. But I didn't correct him. He was right. I stared out the windshield toward the school. I could see Tanya strut out the door. She immediately flipped open an umbrella even though it was barely sprinkling. I thought about Bella. How her dark hair had been wet. Her clothing damp. She didn't seem concerned about the rain. I smiled a little, then I realized that Emmett was watching me grin like an idiot. I shook my head. "Emmett, I just… I've messed things up so much with her already. I hit her with a car door, dropped a cleat on her foot, stabbed her… stalked her." I clenched my hands on the steering wheel. "I don't want to screw anything else up with her. I think maybe it would be best if I just stayed away from her."

"Now that you gave the bracelet back?" Emmett mused. "No reason to see her again?" He pondered. His eyes were on me. I kept my eyes on Tanya as she got into her BMW. Finally he demanded, "Can you do that?"

I clenched my jaw. "For all I know, Emmett, she's not even interested in me. So this may be a pointless discussion, anyway."

"Can you stay away, Edward?" Emmett asked again.

I watched Tanya's BMW pull out of the lot, and I pictured Bella's truck. Damn. "I'm going home, Em," I said quietly.

Emmett made a sound that was half chuckle, half sigh. He grabbed his backpack and got out. "See you later," he said as he shut the door.

I pulled out of the lot before he was halfway to his Jeep. Carlisle was home when I got there. "Hello, Edward," he greeted me when I walked into the kitchen. He frowned a little at my expression. "Everything all right?"

"Yeah, great." I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. "You working tonight?"

"No. I work tomorrow. Day shift for a change." Carlisle didn't press. "You hungry?"

"No. Thanks. I'll be in my room." I felt bad as I charged up the stairs, but I couldn't stand talking to anyone right now. Emmett and Rosalie's questions about what I was going to "do about" Bella really had thrown me off. I had no idea what to think now.

In my room, I unbuttoned and shrugged out of the white shirt I'd picked out that morning. I'd wanted to look nice, but casual when I met Bella. I wondered if she'd appreciated it. If it had been worth worrying about. I balled up the shirt and tossed it into the corner as I threw myself back onto the bed.

I spent the rest of the night in my room. I tried to read and managed to get in a few chapters over a few hours. Most of the time I spent listening to classical music on my iPod. Debussy in particular seemed to fit my mood. I probably repeated Clair de Lune fifty times. Bella's face, her clothes, her voice, her scent, her touch, were on a never-ending loop in my head, no matter what I tried to do to distract myself.

But what I'd told Emmett was true. It probably was best if I stayed away from her. It wasn't like she had given me any indication she wanted me to come back, anyway. I mean, she'd been polite. And once or twice she'd seemed a little… flirtatious. In her own quiet way. I think. Unless it was just my wanting her to be interested that made me interpret her tone that way….

With a sigh, I hit repeat on my iPod again. And saw Bella's face in the opening notes of Clair de Lune. Again.

It was well after two in the morning when I finally fell asleep, still listening, still seeing her, and still not sure what to "do about" her.

BPOV

The next morning, I managed to wake up and make breakfast early enough that I was able to clean up the kitchen and sneak out before Victoria and my stepsisters made it downstairs. I hurried out to my truck in the early morning mist and ate my toast in the cab. I was just finishing when I noticed movement upstairs. Quickly, I turned the key in the ignition and pulled away from the curb before I could get caught lingering outside.

I sat in my truck in the parking lot at the school and took advantage of the quiet to read a little of my tattered copy of Wuthering Heights until Alice and Jasper showed up. Alice bounced her way over to me when I got out. "Hey, Bella!"

"Hey, Alice. Hey, Jasper." I pulled my backpack over my shoulder and fell into step beside Alice as she headed inside. "That's an… interesting dress."

Alice grinned. She knew that it was as close to a compliment as I would give an outfit like the one she was wearing. "Thanks." She did a little twirl to show off the shiny metallic material of the short skirt and plunging neckline. "It's one of the ones I got in Seattle."

"Hm." I was scanning the parking lot. I couldn't help myself. I'd already looked around a dozen times. The Volvo wasn't there. He wasn't around. But I just kept looking.

Pathetic.

Alice cocked a brow at me. "Expecting someone?"

"No." I shoved open the door and stepped inside. She trailed along with Jasper strolling casually behind us. "You think you'll make it through the day without Principal Greene sending you home to change?"

Alice shrugged. "The spawn got to wear those V-necks all day," she pointed out.

"True." I opened my locker and jammed my backpack inside. With my well-worn copy of Romeo and Juliet for first period English and my sketchbook tucked safely inside my notebook for my boredom, I closed my locker and turned to her. My eyes gave a reflexive scan of the hallway. She noticed.

"You're looking for him," she accused.

I shifted my weight uncomfortably. "No. I'm not."

"He does have a tendency to show up."

I glanced at Jasper. He'd echoed my words to Jacob almost exactly. He gave me an amused look, and I smiled a little. "Yeah, he does. But I'm not expecting him to. So no, Alice. I'm not expecting anyone." I shook my head at her as I got an eyeful of her cleavage. "Jesus. Didn't you bring a jacket or something?"

Alice sighed. "You don't wear a jacket with a dress like this, Bella," she said with exaggerated patience.

"I don't wear a dress like that at all," I returned. It wasn't as low as the spawns' V-necks, I would give her that much, but it was… low.

"You will someday," she promised me.

"Not even when I'm dead."

"Okay, so it won't be soon. Not your prom dress. But definitely in college sometime."

"I'm not going to prom anyway, Alice," I reminded her.

"Yes you are, Bella," she said. She tapped her temple. I rolled my eyes. "Come on. You're going. I know it."

"Alice, please. Not right now, okay?"

"We'll talk about it later, then." She nodded firmly. "Because you're going to prom."

We'd had this discussion too many times. She was planning my dress. She was designing it in her head and planning for Esme to make it the way they'd done my Renaissance outfits. I couldn't get her to drop it. And even as hard a time as I had saying no to her, this was one of the few things I was set against. Dressing up was not my thing, but dances? Hell on earth. The dressiest and most hyped dance of a lifetime? The hell other hells feared. I shook my head. "Not now or later, Alice."

She put on the classic Alice pout, and I just rolled my eyes. When the bell rang a few minutes later to start first period, she still was trying to convince me that I was going to prom.

And I still was looking for Edward.

He never appeared. So it seemed that Jake, Jasper, and I were wrong. He wasn't going to show up today. And Jake owed me fifty bucks.

I think I preferred to owe Jake.