A/N: ANOTHER CHAPTER UPP!!! ELEVEN!! WHOOHOO! (: I AM HAPPY.
YET. I am sad at the same time. ): obviously you guys don't love me enough. There have been so many hits but so little actual reviews! ): why? Am I a horrible writer??!!

*BAW*

Never mind. It doesn't matter. THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who reviewed! They make my day! (:

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT. BUT I DO OWN ROBERT PATTINSON. SRZLY. I SWEAR!!

Chapter Eleven

"Yo! Izzy?" The green-eyed Hercules in front of me started waving his hands in front of my face worriedly. I realized quite suddenly, to my mortification, that I was gaping at him.

"I'm so sorry!" I blushed. And as I did, I blushed even harder at my blushing. Could I get any dumber?! The first guy, aside from the Cullens and Hales to talk to me like an actual person, and I stand there like an idiot gaping and of all things, blushing! To my intense pleasure, and surprise, he laughed.

"Why are you sorry?" he asked, still chuckling, his head cocked adorably to the side, his emerald orbs, shining.

"Er…" all coherency flew out my mind as I stared at him. "I have… no idea?" he grinned at me and I felt my breath catch.

"I'm Caleb by the way," he stuck his hand out.

"Caleb," I repeated a little breathlessly as I took his hand and shook it. He grinned even wider, then, he pulled my hand up gently and brushed a feather-light kiss across my knuckles.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you, Izzy." Then he dropped my hand and walked away.

"It's Bella!" I called out to his retreating back, and he turned around and flashed me another megawatt smile. I felt my breath catching again, and I caressed my right hand gently, the burning memory of his kiss imprinted in my mind. The funny thing was, on any other guy, it would've been weird, should've been corny and most definitely not romantic. But when Caleb, and when I thought his name, I felt my toes involuntarily curl in pleasure, did it, it felt oddly pleasant, and definitely, definitely, heart-stopping.

"Swan!" A brusque sound cut through my musings, and I glanced up to find Coach Carter towering above me. My eyes widened as he continued, "get into the changing rooms and change!"

"Yes sir!" I squeaked before dashing madly into the crowded the changing rooms. As I walked in, the chatter dropped into a deathly silence as every girl in there froze. I looked around a little wearily and saw Jessica bouncing excitedly up and down on the balls of her feet.

"Bella! Over here!" she called. I grimaced and walked forward to dump my bag on the empty space beside her. As I changed into my gym uniform, she regaled me with gossip about school. The locker room chatter gradually began to start up again, and as I slipped my shirt off and pulled the gym shirt on, Jessica started talking about him.

"Isn't he the most dreamy guy in school?!" she asked me, staring dreamily into space. I looked on amused for a second, but curiosity won over, it always did.

"Who?" I asked, pulling my hair into a ponytail.

"Caleb Matthews." She sighed.

My heart stuttered and stopped before restarting again in overdrive. "Caleb Matthews?" I managed to squeak out. "Spiky black hair, green eyes?"

"Yeah." Then her eyes went wide, "Oh my god! You've fallen under his charms too, haven't you?!" she grinned a little smugly.

I blushed a brilliant red. "What?! N-no!" I stammered, "I only just like met him… five minutes ago?"

Her eyes lit up as she dragged me along into the gym. "YOU HAVE TO TELL ME EVERYTHING!" she squealed like a little girl who'd overdosed on candy during Halloween. I groaned internally. I didn't want to share my meeting with Caleb Matthews with Jessica. I wanted to keep it private, special, just between the both of us.

Thankfully, at that exact moment, coach Carter decided to torture us by making us run lay-ups up and down the basketball court, so I wasn't able to answer Jessica's question. Running was one of my favourite activities. It provided the silence that you needed to think, and also the concentration, and I loved the way my muscles burned as I pushed myself on and on. Plus, you lost weight doing it. And the sweat was cleansing.

I know it's weird, but I loved to sweat. Whenever I did strenuous exercises and sweated, I always felt like I'd achieved something. It helped that I loved to run, because in the music industry, if you wanted to be on top, you had to be hot. I already didn't have the whole looks thing working for me, so I might as well have a hot body. I figured that out in my first month after I signed on, and after that, I'd worked hard with a personal trainer to get into shape. Running was therapeutic for me, and running also helped me grow taller and made my legs longer, so I wasn't really complaining.

The other girls at Forks High though, they were definitely not happy with the idea of having to sweat. They complained ceaselessly throughout the entire gym period, calling Coach Carter names and bitching about him to each other as they half-assed their way through the lay-ups. Even some of the guys, to my intense surprise, did the same as the girls. After a few rounds, coach Carter told us to do some suicides.

I figured that the entire lesson would be that, just running, and I was glad. This meant that I had time to just think, maybe write a new song, mostly daydream about one very hot Caleb Matthews.

When the lesson ended, coach Carter seemed surprised that I had been able to keep up with the guys in the lesson, and in fact, did better than a lot of them in terms of stamina. I was sweating and my muscles were burning, but I was happy. As I walked back to the locker room to change, my thoughts were intruded upon by the nasally, whiny voice that belonged to a certain Tanya Denali.

"Who does she think she is?!" her voice whipped through the locker room, echoing and bouncing as her group of vapid followers nodded their heads. I briefly wondered who'd gotten on Tanya's nerves but then decided that I didn't really care, so I headed over to my spot which was hidden from her by a row of lockers.

"So she thinks that just because she's famous now, she can waltz in and just take over this town?!" she continued. I froze momentarily as I realized that she was talking about me. My mouth fell open in surprise.

"It's like she expects us to fall down at her feet and worship the ground she walks on!" Tanya spat, I could hear the chorus of her followers agreeing. I gaped quietly as I piled my things into my bag.

"You shouldn't worry about her, Tanya," came the soft, cooing voice of Lauren Mallory. It was a voice I'd recognize anywhere. Lauren and Tanya went hand in hand after all. They'd been best friends since second grade, when Tanya had deigned Lauren cool enough to hang out with her.

Lauren and I had been good friends in second grade, when I had a pencil case that she wanted. Then, as soon as Tanya saw that Lauren and I were getting along well, she decided that she wanted Lauren to be her best friend, and Lauren had been overjoyed with Tanya's attention and just went to her. Lauren's voice pierced through my memory as she continued, "you've got Edward Cullen now, the Edward Cullen," I could hear the smirk in her voice, "and she's got nothing."

"Yea," Tanya replied, slightly mollified, "I have Eddie-poo now. And she doesn't. Ha!"

Eddie-poo?! I thought, his name is Edward! I shouted internally, then cringed. It was then I realized that my hands were balled into fists and it was rather painful. Deciding I'd heard enough of their conversation, I grabbed my bags and walked out of the locker room without changing. It was the end of school anyways.

"Yo, Bella!" I heard as soon as I stepped out of the locker room, "there's a shower in there for a reason, you know!" my head snapped in the direction of the teasing tone of my best friend, the infamous Edward Cullen. "I can smell your sweat from here!" he continued teasing, "and it's sick!"

I smiled icily as the scene in the cafeteria replayed in my mind again. Edward, Tanya… "Cullen." I stated.

His eyes widened for a second before his teasing face fell and his eyes darkened wearily. "What is wrong with you Bella?!" he growled as he neared me.

"Nothing." I replied shortly, then sidestepped him. "I should probably leave before your girlfriend finds us."

Edward's eyes widened again as realization dawned upon him. "Bella," his mouth opened tersely, "don't be like that."

I looked up at him sadly. "I don't know why you did it Edward, but I have no right to say anything. I get it, I left, maybe you were trying to get back at me, or maybe you genuinely like her," his mouth opened again, but I didn't let him continue, "I really hope you're happy with her Edward, and I hope she's worth it, because you know how much she's been hurting me since… always." Then I walked away from him again.

Before I'd even taken two steps, I felt his hand wrap around my arm. "Will you listen to me?!" he growled.

I turned around.

"You're my best friend Bells," he started, but was interrupted by an angry screech of

"CULLEN!"

Both of us cringed and turned around at the angry voice that boomed from the doorway leading to the football field. There, coach Carter stood, silhouetted against the doorframe. "IT'S FOOTBALL PRACTICE! YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

"NOW!"

Edward let go of my arm and jogged away reluctantly. I watched him go as I stood there immobile. "I'll call you later!" he yelled across his shoulder as he sprinted towards Coach Carter. I nodded numbly then turned and made my way into the parking lot.

My mind was a crazy blur as it connected the image of Edward and football together. Of course I'd always known that Edward was athletic, the countless number of tags and catch that we'd played throughout our childhood had taught me that, but in freshman year, Edward hadn't been interested in any of that. In fact, it was Emmett who played football and was in the junior varsity team, Edward had preferred piano and music over anything athletic. Then my mind made the startling, obvious connection. Edward, jock table, surrounded by cheerleaders, Tanya, coach Carter… the way everyone in the hallways had seemed to worship him, the way the girls in the corridors had swooned over him… obviously, I was missing something important here, but still, despite knowing that those signs were important, I was still unable to make a huge connection.

"Penny for your thoughts?" I gasped as I looked up from the ground, standing next to a black Harley motorbike, was a six foot four sex god.

A/N: WHOOHA! :P