Hey guys, sorry for the delay but this is kinda a big chapter...it would have been bigger but I thought it would be best to seperate it into 2 chapter...the other should be up, hopefully by the weekend.

EPOV

I was so over chem. It was day 3 of doing experiments and it was just getting monotonous... although it was better than listening to him drone on and on during his lectures. Today we were working on chemical bonding - joy.

"Can you hand me the 250ml beaker Bella?" Alice asked, too far away on the other side of the table to reach it herself. She handed it to Jazz, who handed it to Alice. We were working in partners to create our "slime": apparently this was supposed to be teaching us about hydrogen bonding or some shit. The girls had split up, since neither were willing to touch the slime; me and Alice and Jasper and Bella - big surprise on how the pairing worked out.

Things had gotten a little better between the two of us - but not by much. It'd been almost a week since she invited me on the football trip and hasn't retracted the offer...so maybe she was planning on inviting me in the first place. And maybe, today after school I'm going to put on a tutu and become a pretty ballerina... So maybe that's a bit of a stretch. She invited me on the football trip because she couldn't figure a way how to get out of it. Still, I guess she could have said no. I mean, it's not like I don't want to go, I'm always down for a good getaway, but I also don't want to start any issues - and she clearly doesn't want me there. I've gotta talk to her about this. Maybe after school today; I could offer to drive her home....

"Edward! Grab the fucking beaker that stuff is overflowing!," Alice yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts, and then smiling politely and giggling at the class; excusing herself from cussing in front of everyone. Apparently, while I was thinking about this football game dilemma Alice had turned up the heat, which I was supposed to have noticed. While she went to get the food coloring in the front of the class with Jazz this thing started bubbling over. Luckily, she spotted it or there would have been an opaque goop all over my stuff and the table - I could only imagine the comments that everyone would come up with, if that were to happen.

"Got it! Sorry Alice," looking over with an apologetic look. She looked back at me, then to the table to make sure that nothing had spilled on her things, and then back to me, finally nodding in approval. I tidied up her side and further made sure that nothing had touched her stuff; I had gotten her stuff dirty before once- when we were 9. I spilled punch on her Barbie dying its hair pink. I had never witnessed a shit storm like that before and never want to witness one again - at least not one where I was on the receiving end of it.

In the midst of straightening up I noticed that Bella had been watching me - probably just waiting for the goop to explode all over while I wasn't paying attention. Bet she wouldn't even warn me that it was happening...bitch. "You missed a spot" she stated, disinterested and turning down the flame on her project.

"Thanks," I sarcastically threw back; now she was mocking me...what the fuck.

"No really, on the other side of her binder. I guess a bubble exploded while you were daydreaming or whatever. You might want to get that before she comes back," she said, again disinterested and playing with her hair.

Well that wasn't what I was expecting - her helping me out. "Thanks," and nodded my head in conjuncture with saying the words.

"Ey B, what color do you want?" Jasper yelled from the front of the class. Mr. Robling shot him a disapproving look, which he just shrugged off. B? What the hell - they were on a nicknames basis, when did that happen? Did I miss something?

"Whatever you want's fine," she said with more enthusiasm - I guess she just saved her best behavior for me.

I glanced at the clock, 5 more minutes, then it's the weekend. Alice and Jazz returned, each with their prospective colors: Alice with red and Jasper with blue.

"So all we have to do is add the food coloring to get the shade we want and then turn it in, so it can sit over the weekend - then finito!" Alice said, squeezing the red drops into the beaker and stirring.

I watched Bella and Jasper as they worked on their slime; they weren't talking much but they laughed sporadically about something I couldn't hear. Where they whispering? Why would they? Why do I fucking even care? I tried harder to listen, while still trying to maintain the appearance that I was working on the lab report and listening to whatever Alice was talking about, but couldn't hear anything except the occasional 'J' or 'B'. Then it stopped, the laughing, and Alice and Jasper got up again to put the beakers, with the now colored slime, away.

I started clearing up the area, picking up the extra beakers from the table, "Do you want me to take yours too?" I asked Bella.

"I can handle it," she coolly stated.

"Really, it's no big deal, I'm going to the sink already and I have a free hand," extending my hand, waiting for her to hand over her beaker.

She hesitated, looked at me and squinted - what was she trying to figure out? Why was she being so damn difficult? "Alright," and she handed me her beaker, "Thanks."

"Just returning the slime heads up," and I walked to the sink. She was being more difficult than she normally was to me; usually she would either pretend not hear me if I said something to her or just do the small request without saying a word. Now, it's like she's questioning everything I do and giving me fucking attitude about it. I made my way back to the table and put away my stuff. Bella gave me a slight nod of appreciation; I guess that was better than nothing.

"So Jazz, are we still on after class to work on the playlist for Homecoming?" Alice asked fairly enthusiastic, which was odd. She usually isn't this excited over stupid committee things.

"Yea, if we must," Jasper said rolling his eyes and then closing them- clearly he didn't catch Alice's enthusiasm, but I did.

I saw her and Bella exchange a glance which Jazz had missed; something was clearly up. The two of them got up and began walking towards the sink. Then it clicked. I got up, meeting them there. "Just be careful Alice, you're family now," I playfully warned, shaking my finger at her.

She and Bella looked at each other and then to me, "I don't know what you're talking about Edward?" Alice said innocently.

"Drop the innocent act; come on, you don't actually think you're going to fool me, do you?" a confident smile now across my lips.

Bella kept the charade up, playing it off like she had no idea what I was talking about - she was loyal. Alice, on the other hand, knew she was beat, "Am I really that obvious?" she asked with a worried expression on her face. Bella elbowed her in the side; apparently she thought she should have tried harder to keep up the charade.

"No, you're not obvious - but I do know you fairly well; so that kind of gave me some insight," I said leaning against the counter. Alice smiled at that comment, relieved, and Bella, she just rolled her eyes and sighed, annoyed that I was in on Alice's little secret too. "And you might want to keep this away from Rose, she might flip out on you."

Alice stared at me blankly, "Do you think I'm stupid? Or that I have some sort of death wish? I'm not telling her anything."

"Yea, if your little tryst lasts that long," Bella snorted under her breath and walked away.

"Shut up Bella!" Alice exclaimed. I gave her a disapproving look.

"What?" she replied. "What's that look for?" she inquired as we made our way back to the table.

"Oh, you definitely know what that look is for munchkin," I quipped.

The bell rang, she arched her eyebrows and gave me a mischievous grin - saved by the bell. "Come on Jazz, I wanna get a smoothie before we start working," she grabbed his arm and tugged him out the classroom before the bell stopped ringing.

With Alice's quick getaway, this left me alone with Bella - which was what I wanted, but did not leave me any time to prepare. What the fuck is wrong with me? Why do I need time to prepare, I wasn't planning on this being some epic showdown. Bella had grabbed her bag and was almost out the door; apparently she felt just as awkward of it just being the two of us as I did.

It was now or never, cause she was already halfway out the door, "Bella wait!"

She paused, her back still facing me. She stood there, not turning around, but waiting to see what my next move was going to be. I grabbed my bag and met up with her at the door. She still said nothing. She just looked at me; her gigantic sunglasses covering her eyes, which even with the dark glasses on I could tell were questioning my intentions.

"Uh, I know Alice drove you guys this morning and I figured you'd be stranded since she just ran off with Jasper... soo do you need a ride?"

Her mouth dropped a little, not drastically but enough to notice. She took off her sunglasses, as if that would make it easier to understand what I said, "What?" she uttered in surprise.

I tried to stifle a laugh because her reaction was just too funny, but if I started laughing at her now she would probably think that this was some sort of trick. I slowed it down for her, trying to ease the uncomfortable tension in the air, "Doo youu waaaant a ride hoomeee?" elongating most of the vowels in the question.

And then she did something unexpected, she laughed; I figured I was in for some bitchy sarcastic comeback. "No, I get the question," she laughed, "just why are you asking me?"

This was bold; didn't think she would be this upfront - I thought she was going to dodge the question and just leave. I didn't really know how to react to this because there were a lot of possible answers to this question, so I just didn't say anything. I ran a hand through my hair, "I just wanted to be nice." This was the most neutral answer I could come up with.

She looked at me harder and shrugged - but didn't say anything. We just stood there looking, not really at each other, but in the person's general area. She finally spoke. "Well thank you for the offer, but I have a meeting at 3 for the charity committee," responding rather politely, weird.

I was about to respond, when a familiar looking girl came up to us. "Hey Bella, are you guys heading to the meeting now - you're gonna be late if you don't go soon," she said and continued walking. But then she stopped, "That's really cool you're bringing Cullen, since there aren't many guys on the committee."

What was she talking about? Did she think I was now a part of the charity committee now? Well, I was looking for something to tell her 'thanks' for letting me come on the whole trip...but I think this would be a bit much. The familiar girl kept talking, more so to Bella, she hardly even looked at me, "This is going to be so great! He can give us some male perspective."

"Well..." Bella began, but then was cut off by the other girl, again, when some other girls came around the corner.

"Guess what guys, Cullen's going to be on the committee too!" The others looked very excited, probably excited that this would give them a chance to actually talk to me. I looked over at Bella who did not look excited - more like the same look she had on her face when she invited me to the football game - cornered.

"Ok guys, calm down. Just go to the room and I'll meet you in there," she ordered the others. They looked at her with pleading eyes, but she didn't flinch.

They started to walk away when one girl turned. "But..." the familiar girl started to say.

"Victoria, shut the fuck up and get in the room," Bella commanded. Victoria? Oh, that was the coffee girl from earlier in the week; Bella was still talking to her? Victoria lowered her head, defeated, and mumbled something under her breath that neither of us could hear. She went into the room as ordered.

"Sorry about that; didn't mean to bombard you with all those girls." She sounded genuine. I looked at her, her big brown eyes shimmered with sincerity.

"It's alright, I've been through worse," I joked.

She paused, hesitant to say whatever she was about to say. "Well, it seems that you have an audience and I know they won't shut up about you if you don't go. You don't have to but," and then she paused again, exhaling loudly, "I'd really appreciate it if you could just come to this meeting; I'd owe you if you came." She said the last part very quickly - probably hoping I didn't catch what she just said. Unfortunately, for her I did.

That last part almost looked painful for her, which again I thought was fucking hysterical. I know I'm an ass - I really shouldn't be enjoying someone else's pain but this was just too good. "Hmmm," I put a finger up to my chin and scratched as if I was thinking about something, "so you would be indebted to me if I went?"

"Well, yea I guess," she muttered. "Never mind, I'll handle them myself," she said clearly and started walking away.

"Wait, I never said I wouldn't do it," I stated. She stopped walking and waited for me to catch up.

*****************************************

God, this was a boring meeting. 'When should we meet', 'who should host the next', it was all logistics - they weren't planning on helping anyone, they have just been socializing the entire time - charity committee my ass. I glanced at my watch, it was almost an hour and a half of being in here...this had to be ending soon.

"Alright, so does anyone have any ideas about what the big event should be this year?" Bella proposed to the group.

The room was silent - it was pretty clear who the brains of the operation were. Bella was the Queen Bee and the rest of the committee were her little drones.

"Come on guys, I know you all have ideas. Out of all of you, one of them might actually be good." The rest of the girls looked at each other like they were being complimented - were they really that dense that they couldn't see that she was mocking them? A single laugh escaped my lips; I moved my hand to my mouth to try to play it off as a cough but Bella caught it.

"Do you have something to add Cullen?" she said with a tight smile - she knew that I had gotten her joke.

"Nope, just that I agree with you. You would think that with this group of girls, someone would have a good idea for what you could do," I said trying to remain composed - as was Bella.

The group of girls were looking around the room at each other and quietly talking, no one saying anything too loud incase their idea was stupid. "Well, do you have any ideas?" Tanya Denali asked. She was one of the only girls there I actually knew: our parents are friends and we were in a lot of the same classes when we were younger.

Bella arched an eyebrow and the rest of the girls turned and looked at me. I guess I was expected to respond now. I thought for a minute before saying anything. "Well, have you guys ever thought of having an auction?"

"Of course we've done that," Tanya immediately responded, slightly annoyed at this was my response.

"No, not a regular auction. I mean a date auction: you guys could auction yourselves or whomever off and people would bid on the girl they wanted to go on a date with," I retorted.

The room grew quiet - they were all thinking about what I had just proposed. "That's genius!" Tanya squealed. "That is absolutely perfect!"

Bella looked at her watch - apparently she wanted to get out of there too. "Ok guys, this sounds like a good place to stop. Let's think about the idea that was just proposed and we'll talk about it next week. Meeting adjourned," she exclaimed.

The room began dispersing and I headed for the doorway - I wanted to get out of that room as quickly as possible. Bella was quick to follow; I was the first person out the door and she was the second. "So, would you like a ride now?" I asked.

She hesitated again, pulling on her jacket, "Well I was just going to catch a ride with Em," she looked out the window and towards the football field, "but I guess he's still in practice." I could tell she didn't want to give in, but she finally did, "Ok, if it's not too much of an issue."

"It's not a problem; I wouldn't have asked if it were," I said bluntly.

We headed towards my car in silence. It was cold outside. I hugged my coat closer to my body and saw that Bella had slouched a little into her scarf, so that now it was covering her mouth and some of her nose. We both jogged to the car, which surprised me since she was in some fairly high stilettos. We were almost all the way to the car when she tripped. I saw this happening and grabbed her arm to try and steady her. Unfortunately, she still lurched forward and fell onto her knees; it didn't look that bad but she was wearing a skirt so she had skinned her knees a little bit.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yea, it's not a big deal," she said wiping the gravel off her knees with her free hand and then winced a little bit - it looked like she might have a small cut of something.

"Do you need a band-aid?"

"No, it's not that, I think I may have twisted my ankle in the fall. Thanks for trying to help," she said. She was looking down at her ankle now and holding onto my arm tighter - probably trying to steady herself and probably unaware that she was still holding onto me. She muttered something about scuffing her shoe.

I looked down at her ankle, it looked like it getting kinda puffy, "I should take you to my dad -incase its more than just a twisted ankle."

"No, no, I'm sure I'll be fine. I trip all the time and I'm good," she tried to assure me.

I looked at her ankle again. In the minute or so we were standing there it had gotten even more swollen. "It looks pretty bad and this can turn into something more serious, Bella. I'm not taking no for an answer."

She finally let go of my arm and made a motion to take a step, trying to show me she was really ok. "See," she took the step forward, "I'm fin....ow" she winced and almost fell again. This time I caught her though. I gave her an 'I told you so look'. "Ok, maybe I'm not fine. I'll go see your dad".

Sidenote - I'm looking for a beta or someone to bounce some ideas with...if you're interested send me a pm

Also, reviews are fantastic :) hint hint