Thanks for your kind words so far! This chapter is a little bit longer.

Then

Bella was a bored student. Because she was very intelligent, she always finished her work well ahead of the rest of her class, and she spent the rest of the time daydreaming and concocting new spells in her mind. She couldn't wait to get out of high school and go away to college.

Her biology lab partner was also an underachiever. Relatively new to the town, having started at her school at the beginning of their junior year and whose previous school's curriculum was far ahead, Edward Cullen had the same problem as Bella. His family moved around a lot due to his parents' careers as traveling nurses.

He was very intelligent but under-stimulated. That could have caused problems for the rest of the class and their teacher knew that. So Mr. Banner, the junior biology teacher, had decided to put the two of them together as partners.

Edward Cullen was pretty easy on the eyes. He was also very easy to get along with. He managed to distract her most days. They'd talk about anything from their labs to their family lives. She listened to him tell stories of how his parents met, which reminded her of how her own had met. He shared with her how he missed his friends from his old school. He didn't really speak to anyone aside from her - much to their female and some male classmates' dismay. When he did speak with anyone else, they were charmed immediately. She'd wondered if someone had placed a spell on him when he was a baby.

Bella quickly realized that Mr. Banner's decision to put her and her male intellectual equivalent together as partners led to Biology becoming the most unproductive part of her day. Fortunately, she had already done all the labs for fun prior to even beginning high school, so she didn't have to worry about ever falling behind. Instead of spending her evenings doing homework, she'd spent most of her teenage years learning from her grandmother - a woman she'd come to love and respect.

One particular day, while she was in class, Bella's mind was nowhere near the science lab or Edward. Actually that was false. he was always in her periphery. She consistently focused on keeping him out of her mind. Her thoughts at that moment were on the previous night's events. A woman named Jane had come to her aunt's house the previous night. She had been having marital problems. At twilight, she had gone to Helen and begged for her to do something to help her husband love her again.

Bella had hidden at the top of the stairs. When the woman had broken down, Helen, a romantic herself, who had lost her husband before Bella was born, had placed her hand on Jane's arm. She had always believed that men never fell out of love, but they were easily distracted. Her safe spells were to help with that distraction. Her more serious, impactful spells involved affecting free will. She had offered both options and the woman had chosen the latter, believing her husband needed to be manipulated back into loving her.

"There is no turning back if we do this spell," Helen had warned. "He will not want to leave your side. This unwavering attention can be overwhelming. This unconditional love may be too much for you." Jane hadn't cared, though, and Bella had watched her grandmother stab a needle through a rabbit's heart so a woman's husband would want her again. It had fascinated Bella. Her grandmother had spent most of Bella's childhood showing her spells, and Bella caught on very quickly. She'd memorized spells immediately. Like all of her other relatives, she was a natural.

And so after Jane had left and Helen had gone to bed, Bella had tried her own version of the spell to practice, but she hadn't thought of anyone as she performed it. She made sure of it. Her grandmother had taught her that intention was the most crucial part of the spell, so Bella made sure to think of no one. And it was easy, considering she had never been in love.

Still though, Bella purposefully replicated the spell after finding the jar of hearts hidden in the back of the pantry once her grandmother had gone to sleep. It was a powerful spell and typically the more powerful the spell, the more time Bella needed to recoup. She'd felt nauseous and uncertain when she had finished.

And then in the morning when she had gotten ready for school, the nausea and the unease hadn't dissipated. Bella barely noticed when Edward Cullen had thrown his backpack onto their lab table.

"Hello, Bella," a low masculine voice murmured as he unzipped his bag and pulled out his textbook. Bella's mind returned to the present and she glanced over at Edward. He raised his eyebrows, feeling amused but unsurprised, since Bella normally had her head in the clouds before class began. It always was entertaining to him to disrupt her thoughts.

Her eyes met his. She always noticed that his expression changed when she made eye contact with him. He would keep his half smile plastered on his face despite the curiosity in his eyes, but his features would soften. Today, though, the smirk morphed into a grin, revealing his perfectly straight white teeth.

Bella normally focused most of her efforts in class on blocking Edward's charm. He had no idea the charm he held, though. He was blissfully ignorant of the effect he had on people. He normally kept to himself, only speaking to those who had spoken to him first.

Bella was too distracted by the love spell she had performed to remember to shield herself from Edward. So she wasn't prepared for deflecting his charms. When he had pulled her out of her thoughts with that breathtaking grin, her heart fluttered. She blushed and looked away, unable to respond. She focused on getting her breathing under control.

"You know the polite response is 'Hello, Edward,'" he laughed. He sat in the chair next to her.

"Hello, Edward," she mumbled. Then she felt bad and glanced up at him, forcing a smile. "Hi, how are you today?"

"That's the Bella I know and love," he winked at her, making her rosy cheeks even rosier. Love. "I'm doing well...really looking forward to how much we're going to learn in Biology today." They both knew that was a joke. They probably were more equipped to teach the course than their teacher. When Bella didn't laugh, because she had been too distracted by his winking, he frowned, misinterpreting her distress. "Are you okay, Bella?"

When she looked up at him and saw the concern in his eyes, she suddenly wished that who she was - her ancestry and her gifts - were normal. She wished that she could date a guy like Edward and be able to tell him that she felt uneasy about the spells that she performed. The warning her grandmother had given had frightened her.

She should have told him she was fine and that he shouldn't worry. She was just having an off day and would feel better tomorrow. He would likely back off because she was clearly fine if she said so herself. Looking into Edward's kind, worried eyes, though, she felt the need to be honest.

"I...don't know."

Edward furrowed his eyebrows and then pushed his chair away from the table, standing up. Bella's eyes followed his movement. She was confused why he looked frustrated. He walked toward the front of the room - the eyes of his classmates drawn to his height and good looks. He also rarely did anything that drew attention to him, yet at this moment, he walked confidently up to the teacher. He spoke quietly to Mr. Banner who glanced at Bella, narrowed his eyes, and nodded.

Edward walked back to their table, snatched his backpack up off the floor and said, "Come on, you and I are getting out of here. Just...pretend that you're sick." Bella blinked, not fully understanding the words that had just come out of his mouth. He was staring intently at her, and she became so distracted by the intensity of his gaze that she could do nothing other than stare at him. He waved his hand in front of her face. "Hello? Bella, grab your bag and come with me."

She shook herself of her thoughts and stood up quickly. "But look sick," he whispered in her ear, making her shiver. He gripped her arm as they walked slowly down the aisle. Their classmates stared. When they made it to the hallway, Edward moved his hand from her upper arm to her lower back and picked up his pace. She felt the heat of his hand through her thin sweater.

"Are we going to the nurse?" she asked, stumbling to keep up with his long legs. "Slow down, you're like a foot taller than me."

He slowed. "Not to the nurse...unless you need to?" He turned to her and raised his eyebrows. It caused a rush of excitement to course through her. He had stubble along his jaw and neck. She shook her head. He grinned again and she smiled in return.

"Well then where are we going, Edward?" They had stopped walking at this point.

"I don't know," he laughed, but grabbed her hand and led her out of the building.

Bella felt excited but fearful. She was only a teenage girl still, but she knew that though she had maintained a hard focus on thinking of no one when she performed the spell the night before, it was likely that the charming Edward had popped into her mind.

Do you remember your first love or first crush?

My first crush was a boy who rocked the punk look. He was so sweet and would always choose me as his partner in our social studies class.

Also - I hope you're all keeping safe :)

-Bravery