Previously On:

"Alright class, listen up!" Mr. Coffee, um I mean, Mr. Coffman says. "Today will be an easy day! All you have to do is pages 30, 32, and 37-40. Only do the evens and turn it in the basket when you're done." For the rest of class, we worked silently and diligently. Well, Scar and I were done. We just wrote each other notes until class ended.

Chapter Fourteen: Lunch

After Gym class, Scar and I parted ways. Her, to Interior Graph & Design and me, to Writer's Workshop. I sat at the table I sat yesterday and pulled out my composition book. Even though Angela, Ben, and Annie had helped me brainstorm ideas for our writing project, I wanted to narrow the list down to at least ten. (We had at least thirty different ideas such as an evil disco queen who was deathly allergic to liquids.) Hmmm...take out the ideas involving romance, robots, or craziness. That leaves me with eleven. Cool.

"Hey, Bee." Annie says as she slides into the seat across from me.

"Sup, Anne of Green Gables." That was her nickname from me. Just like the heroine, she had large greenish-gray eyes and red hair.

"Do you know what your project is going to be on," she says as she flips through multiple pages in her binder. "Mine is going to be a tragedy. It's going to be about a broken girl who will do anything to belong."

"That's extremely messed up, Annie." I shivered, "I can't wait to read it."

"Mine is going to be about robots who take over the world in the future. The heroine is going to be a one-eyed nanny and younger past herself." Ben says proudly as he sits down.

"Wow, Benji. That's sounds awesome," Annie says in a dreamlike voice.

"That sounds oddly familiar." I begin thinking. Where did I hear that from?

"Don't believe him." Angie says, joining our little trio. She rolls her eyes at her boyfriend. "He 'came up' with that idea last night when watching Jessie with his little sister."

"I knew I recognized that somewhere!" I exclaim. Ben looks sheepishly at us from under his bangs.

"I was going to change it! It obviously wasn't going to be a red-haired girl from Texas."

"Yeah, yeah." Angie shakes her head in disapproval at her boyfriend. "Bella, did you choose yours?"

"No but I've narrowed it down to ten." I show her my list.

"Hey, I liked the evil disco queen who is deathly allergic to liquids, especially water." Angie sighed.

"That was pure craziness like bad horror movie crazy." Annie pipes up.

"Like Jennifer's Body crazy?" Ben asks.

"Probably." Annie shrugs.

"Nope, nothing can top that crazy." Annie disagrees.

"What about every movie in the Scary Movie franchise," I suggested.

"Nothing tops Jennifer's Body." Ben says. "The Scary Movie franchise was pure fucking stupidity."

"Babes, language!"

"Sorry, Angie, love." He looks sheepishly at her. "But those movies as dumb as hell and have no good plot lines. They make fun of the greats."

"Ben, I didn't know you cursed." I clapped him on the book,"I'm proud of you."

"Of course you are, Bells. You curse up a storm." Angie shakes her finger at me. "You curse like an old, one-legged sailor."

"Well, maybe."

"Maybe nothing! You curse an awful lot, Bee." Annie says, agreeing with Angie.

Suddenly, the lunch bell rings and with it, signals the end of class and the end of this conversation. I shove my notebook in my bag and join my friends as we go to the cafeteria.

"Ugh. What the fuck is this?" Jessica says as she joins our little group in line.

"I believe they're pizza sticks," Angie shrugged and pointed to the menu board. "Today there's pizza sticks, spaghetti, calzones, and chicken tender salad."

"I'll get the chicken salad," Jessica picks one up, "It's the lesser of the evils." When it's my turn, I get chocolate chip cookies (what can I say? I love chocolate), a calzone, and a wilted salad because the lunch lady glares at me. I pay with a ten and go with Angie to get a soda. I get Scar two Cokes and I get myself a Sprite Zero.

"How was class, Scar?" I slid the two Cokes over to Scar when I sat down.

"Thanks," she twists the top off with a graceful flick of the wrist and gulps down half of it in one go. "It wasn't that bad. We're making digital cereal boxes for a grade."

"Hey, Lauren. Is Tyler here?" The stringy blond with the sour expression on her face, turned to Angela. "He's coming." A tall, African-American boy, who had a short, neat afro, swaggered over to where we were sitting.

"Hey, Laura." The boy said, kissing Lauren's pale cheek. The sour expression melted from her face and it's place was unconcerned adoration. She actually looks quite lovely when she wasn't scowling. I guess love does that to you.

"Hey, Ty. Was Mrs. Anderson alright?"

"Is she ever?" The whole group, excluding me and Scar, laughed.

"Well she could've put you in detention." Ben pointed out.

"I guess that'll be worse."

"Bella!"

"What, Jess?" Up in to this point, I had been happily eating Scar's cheese calzone along with my own. They're not half bad by the way. They need just a bit of Italian seasoning.

"Edward Cullen, THE fucking Edward Cullen, is looking over here!" Jessica looks like she's going to faint from pure disbelief.

"So? He has eyes doesn't he? He can look where he pleases," I say but I glance up. Edward is sitting a table by himself, looking positively godlike. He is, indeed, looking over at our table.

"HE'S BECKONING YOU OVER!"

"I can see that Jess." I roll my eyes, she's just as bad as Scar. "Do you mind, Scar?"

"Nope," she winks at me and I smile kind of. "Make me proud."

"I'll try." I take the rest of Scar's food and put it on my tray. What? It wasn't like she was going to eat any of it! Besides I only took the good stuff.

"So Cullen, what's this about?" I said as I sat across from him. Edward looked effortlessly beautiful in his simple Yale University sweatshirt and jeans. He tossed an apple around in his long, thin fingers.

"I thought we'd finish our conversation from last night." I raise an unimpressed eyebrow.

"We did if you remember. We wrapped up with a 'goodbye and see you at school' if my memory is anything to go by." My outward coolness hid my excitement and pleasure of seeing him.

"Well, let me rephrase that. I'd like to get to know you better."

"I see."

"The only things I know about you are that you're a talented artist, family oriented, and chocolate-obsessed."

"I'm not chocolate obsessed."

"Says the person who ate the whole pack of Oreos in the course of two hours and then ate a giant slice of chocolate cake." He puts the apple down on the tray.

"Okay, you got me." I smiled at him from under my bangs. "Well, I guess you do know some things about me-"

"I pay attention to detail."

"Hey, I wasn't finished!" I protested.

"My apologies."

"I was saying that you know some things about me but I hardly know anything about you." That devastatingly gorgeous crooked smile of his came across his perfect face and my heart began to race. I'm sure he heard it.

"Twenty questions." He says, "You first."

"Favorite music genre?"

"Punk rock and classical."

"I didn't know you were into classics, Eddie."

"I love classical music. My favorite piece is Clair De Lune by Debussy."

"I loved that one! It's my favorite besides The Flight of the Bumblebee." I gushed, "Your turn!"

"Favorite color?"

"It changed by the day. Right now I have to say brown because-"

"It's the color of chocolate?" He teased, his topaz eyes dancing with light.

"Partially," I admitted, "but mainly because it's warm."

"Brown is warm." He was gazing into my eyes with a small smile on his face. I blushed and looked down, making my bangs fall into my eyes.

"Favorite movie?" I said finally, breaking the silence.

"I don't really watch tv but if I had to pick, it would be every Marvel movie made from 2000-2016."

"Are you going to see Thor: Ragnarok?" I squeaked excitedly. Scar wasn't going to see it with me. She and Ari were going to some movie called Murder on the Orient Express."

"Maybe."

"Do you want to see it with me? It comes out in November." I blushed when I realized I accidentally asked him out. Twice.

"It's a date," he winked at me.

"Cool, cool." Outwardly, I was calm but inwardly, I was screaming.

"Shall, we go on?"

"Sure, uh, I mean yeah."

"I believe it was my turn?"

"Yeah."

"Favorite gemstone?"

"Topaz." If he would have asked me any other day, I would have said pearl. Pearl in my opinion was not flashy. It was classical, elegant, and simple.

"Why?"

"It's the color of your eyes," I said bluntly. He smiled, the crooked grin on his face getting wider and wider. "They're lovely. I could stare at them all day. Well, metaphorically, of course. I'll eventually blink." Crap, I'm rambling! He must think I'm an idiot. The bell rings, breaking us out of our staring contest.

"I'll see you in class, la mia bella regina."

"What does that mean?" He smiled and stood up with all the grace of a vampire. He walked off, disappearing through the double doors.

"Bella, what was that?" Jessica said, rushing over to me as I stood outside the cafe, waiting for Scar.

"What was what?"

"You and Cullen? This is your second day but you already caught the attention of Edward Cullen A.K.A the hottest boy in school! He's like an outcast. He doesn't talk to anyone besides his family!" There was an edge of jealousy in her voice. "Did you guys already know each other?"

"Well-"

"Are you guys dating?"

"Er-"

"Hey, Bee! Sorry, I took so long! Lauren was asking if I wanted to be on the Homecoming Committee." Scar says, walking over to where Jessica and I was.

"That's cool." I shoot her a grateful look. "Hey, come to my locker with me?"

"Yeah."

"Sorry, Jess. I'll catch you in class." I say as though I wasn't relieved to escape her relentless interrogation.

"You better tell me everything afterwards." She points an accusing finger at me.

"What was that all about?"

I tell her everything that transpired during lunch. "What does la mia bella regina mean?" I asked Scar because she was half Italian (her mother was Italian) and she spoke Italian fluently.

"Why did Edward call you that?"

"Yeah."

She smirked and her eyes held a mischievous gleam. "Hmmm..."

"Are you going to tell me?"

"He'll tell you soon enough." She sauntered off, red hair swinging.

"Oh, come on Scar! You can't leave me hanging like that!" I ran after her. "Come on Scar! Hey, hey. Don't leave me hanging!" Out