The next morning I woke refreshed and couldn't wait to get to school. We arrived early and I waited in the parking lot for Bella to show up while my family went ahead to the school buildings.

Finally Bella pulled up and I walked over to her car, opening the door for her before she could. She looked up when the door opened, still busy with unfastening the seat belt and reaching for her things on the passenger seat. When she saw it was me her eyes widened in surprise and something akin to shock.

"Good morning, Bella," I greeted her with a smile and held my hand out to take her bag.

"Edward, you don't need to do this," she said, looking at my hand. She pulled the bag over her own shoulder and climbed out of the car. The bag looked heavy and I wondered what the heck she was bringing with her to school.

"I know, but I would love to," I replied grinning widely, as I still held out my hand.

She considered for one a moment, then handed the bag over without a word. It weighed a ton.

"Wow, what do you bring to school? Bricks?"

She had to laugh at that, and, God, did I love that sound.

"Nah," she shook her head. "I had to borrow a couple of books from the school library and want to return them today."

We started to walk toward the entrance of the school. Some of the other kids who were still arriving cast us curious glances but I didn't care. I was just too happy to be with Bella. She, on the other hand, started to blush when she noticed the looks we got.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered, staring at two girls who were openly pointing at us.

Instantly my good mood evaporated. I had noticed before that Bella hated all kinds of attention, and being with me all of a sudden after I had ignored her for weeks - which certainly hadn't gone unnoticed by the majority of the school's student body - would cause just that: attention.

"I'm sorry," I said, glowering at the two girls, who instantly looked away, hiding their faces.

"It's not your fault," she said.

I wasn't so sure about that. Well, actually, I knew it was my fault because of the way I had treated her before. At least she didn't demand her bag back, so I guess she wasn't too annoyed. At least I hoped she wasn't

More students stared at us, but I tried to ignore them. I was watching Bella instead, which was, in my book, a much more interesting pastime. She had her eyes cast down and was nervously biting her lower lip, but once in a while she looked at me from underneath her long eye lashes and smiled a little and every time I thought my heart would stop.

We reached her locker and she held her hand out for her bag, which I reluctantly returned to her. I leaned against a locker nearby as I watched her pulling out several books and placing them inside.

She would have to leave for her class soon, so I gathered up all my courage.

"Would you want to join me for lunch today?" I asked, rushing the words out, making them almost into one single word.

"What?" She nearly dropped her bag, but I managed to catch it before it reached the ground.

Damn, I shouldn't have pushed her like that. I was moving too fast. But then, I had lost so much time already and I wanted to talk to her.

"I'm sorry," I said for the second time today and handed the now much lighter bag back to her. "I know you usually sit with your friends and ..."

She held up her hand palm outward, stopping me mid-sentence.

"It's okay," she said, almost too low for me to hear. "I'd love to sit with you at lunch." She smiled shyly at me.

I spent the rest of the morning in a bit of a daze and I knew I was incapable of wiping that stupid grin I had off my face. Alice, who was in Government with me, gave me a thumbs-up sign and winked at me. I guess - well, hoped - this meant my lunch date with Bella would go well.

Bolstered with that little bit of intel, I waited at the end of forth period at the door of Bella's classroom. Again I got curious glances from my fellow students, but I ignored them, only interested in one person in that room.

When Bella saw me she looked surprised, almost as if she hadn't expected me to show up. I wasn't sure why she should think something like that, but then I remembered how I had treated her the last weeks, and realized that it would be a while before she would be able to trust me. Not that I could blame her for that. It had been my fault after all.

She was talking to Angela, one of the girls she usually hung out with. "See you tomorrow," Bella said to her before turning to me.

"Okay," the other girl replied, then smiled shortly at me before she walked down the corridor towards the cafeteria. I always had liked Angela and again I was reminded why. Unlike most other students she simply accepted a given situation without judging.

"Hi Bella," I said, pushing myself off the wall.

"I wasn't sure you would be here," she said, smiling shyly up to me.

"I asked you if you'd be okay with this," I reminded her gently. "I just hope you haven't changed your mind." As she had every right to do.

"No," she shook her head. "I haven't changed my mind."

"Good to hear." Once again I offered to take her bag, but this time she declined.

After she stowed her bag in her locker, we made our way to the cafeteria. We picked up some food, then searched for an empty table for us. My family was sitting at their usual table. I felt a little bit self-conscious as I knew they would be able to hear every word we said. I glanced over to them. Rosalie was watching me. When Emmett saw me looking at her, he winked at me from across the room and whispered something into her ear. She turned to him and gave him a kiss and I knew we would be alone, at least for now.

"You know, it's funny," Bella said. She had noticed where I had been looking and was now also watching my family. "I've never seen your family eat anything."

My head whipped around and I stared at her.

"What?" I hadn't been ready for that.

"You know, every time I see you and your brothers and sisters here, you're the only one to actually eat."

That's because they're vampires and live off animal blood. Shit, I couldn't just come out and tell her that. Certainly not here and not now.

"Ehr, they don't like the food here very much," I said, trying to act nonchalant. Well, it was the truth after all.

"You don't seem to have any problems with it," she said, pointing at the food I had on my tray.

After five weeks of barely eating anything because I simply had lacked the appetite, my hunger had returned with a vengeance. A large portion of today's pasta special, a slice of pizza and a plate piled with salad crowded my tray, so my pint of milk and the apple I also had picked barely found room on it.

I simply shrugged, picked up my fork and then dug in. "What can I say," I said around a mouthful of the pasta. "I'm not very picky where food is concerned."

"You could say that again," she grinned at me and also started with her food.

"I'm not very picky where food is concerned," I said again, grinning.

For a second she froze, hardly believing I had actually the audacity to go through with that god awful pun. Then she laughed out loud.

"That was awful," she said, once she had herself back under control.

I raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "I know. Sorry." But I couldn't stop myself from grinning. It was so great to see her laugh.

"So, are you looking forward to your trip to the beach tomorrow?" I changed the topic.

She nodded, though without too much enthusiasm. "I've been there a couple of times when I was a kid. It will be nice to see it again. Have you've been there before?"

I shook my head. As my family had been banned from Quileute land, I never had the opportunity to go there.

"Who else is coming?"

Mike Newton had mentioned others when he had talked to Bella the day before. I was sort of glad about it, as I didn't like the thought of Mike being alone with Bella. Sometimes he looked at her in a way I didn't really care about.

"Some others from our year. Angela, Jessica, Eric, Tyler and Ben, I think. A few more I'm not exactly sure who else."

Good. That looked like a big enough and thus safe group.

"I really wish I could come, too," I said with a little sigh. I really would love to spend more time with her. But I just couldn't shirk my duties. It would be wrong.

"Me too," she said softly, looking up at me from underneath her long eye lashes, and I almost changed my mind about the work at the hospital.

"You'll have fun," I assured her, trying to sound more cheery than I really felt. "I believe the weather will clear up and there will actually be some sunshine this weekend."

Alice had already confirmed this. In fact, there would be a couple of nice and sunny days until Tuesday. This was actually a bit of a problem, as my family wouldn't be able to come to school on those days. It simply would be too conspicuous for them to walk across the campus in the sunshine. Normally I would skip school as well, taking the 'Cullens go Camping on Sunny Days' excuse, which we had always used in the past. As our grades were good enough, we never had any problems to get out of school. This time, however, I would stay in school, keeping an eye on Bella.

"You mean there are actually days with sunshine here in Forks?" she asked half mockingly.

"Yeah, I know, it's a shock. But I've seen it happen," I joked right back, enjoying how relaxed she now acted.

"They should close the school then and declare a national holiday."

"I agree. And they should have a parade on main street."

We tossed back and forth a few more ideas on the 'Forks Sunny Holiday' day, each one more outrageous than the one before. Bella's nearness and the sight of her laughing made me act far sillier than I usually would. In the end, we both were laughing so hard we couldn't get any more words out, and tears were streaming down our faces.

I don't think I ever had so much fun. And having this fun together with Bella simply made it perfect.

We were still laughing when the bell to the next period rang. Quickly, we dumped our trash and walked together to our Biology class room. Inside we slipped into our seats, waiting for Mr. Banner to arrive.

"Do you have a moment after class is over?" I whispered to Bella, just as our teacher entered the class room. I wanted to ask her something.

She simply nodded.

Banner called the class to order and started with his lecture for the day. Today there wasn't any team work as Banner went on to explain the historical background on the different blood types and how the whole blood typing thing actually worked. Nothing new for me there – living with vampires had led me to know more about blood than Banner would probably ever know – so I could fill the lesson with my new favorite thing to do: watching Bella.

Naturally she noticed me staring at her. Every time she did, she usually just smiled a little before looking back to the front of the class. I took this as a very good sign. Sometimes, though, she frowned, which seriously confused me. I really wished I would be able to read her mind, know what she was thinking. I always thought I was good at reading people, but with Bella I felt lost. Or maybe, for the first time, it really was important to me what somebody thought. I didn't want to make any mistakes with Bella and because of this I couldn't decide on what any given gesture and glance meant.

Eventually, finally, the hour drew to an end and Banner dismissed us. I stayed behind with Bella, waiting for her to place her books in her bag. She took her time, lingering until the last of the students had left the room and we were finally alone.

She sat back on her chair, looking at me expectantly.

"What do you want?"

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. Suddenly I felt very nervous.

"I've heard that you're not going to the spring ball weekend after next," I started.

The spring ball had been the most talked about event this week. I knew Bella hadn't asked anybody, stating she had other plans for the day. Now I was hoping I might be able to include myself in those other plans of her.

She looked at me, her eyes suddenly narrow. "You're not going to ask me, too?"

"What?"

"In the last week, Mike, Eric and Tyler have asked me if I wanted to go with them to the ball. I thought it was a girl's choice ball and all, and I have other plans anyway, so what the heck is the matter with them?" She ranted on, clearly annoyed at the boys in question.

Not that I could really blame them. I could very much understand why they had asked her, for Bella was a wonderful person and who wouldn't want to spend time with her? The fact that she had rejected them also gave me a warm feeling. It meant she wasn't especially interested in any of them, which hopefully increased my chances.

I suppressed a grin and asked, "I was just wondering what your plans for that day were."

She relaxed a little. "I need to go to Seattle to get some things. Books mostly - the selection here is a bit lacking. Why do you ask?"

"I was wondering if you wanted a ride," I offered.

She stared at my blankly. "What?"

"Well, I need to go to Seattle anyway some time soon, and so I thought I could give you a ride."

"I thought you're at the hospital on Saturdays."

"Only every other Saturday. I'm free the one after tomorrow."

"Why would you take me?"

I shouldn't be surprised at the shock in her voice. I had treated her pretty badly the last couple of weeks and it had been less than 24 hours since I started talking to her again.

Still, it hurt.

"As I said, I need to go anyway. And honestly, I don't think your truck is going to make it."

"My truck works just fine," she defended that piece of junk she called a car.

"What kind of mileage has that thing anyway?" I asked. "Don't tell me you can make it to Seattle with just one tank of gas."

"That's what gas stations are for," she replied to that slur of her car, though I thought I could feel her resolve weakening.

"Think of the environment," I added now. "The emission values of my car are ten times better than yours."

I got her there.

"Besides," I raised the pressure a bit more. "If I drive, you'll spend less time on the drive back and forth, and you can spend more time on whatever you want to do in Seattle."

Finally she sighed, then nodded. "Okay, if you insist, I'm coming with you."

She sounded as if she just had said yes to her own execution. But when I looked at her sideways, I noticed the corner of her mouth twitching as she tried to suppress a grin.

I grinned at her, probably looking like an idiot. A very happy idiot.

She had said yes!