A/N: Thank you again for clicking on this story!

Chapter 3: A Boring New Friend

I drove home, while I tried to figure out what was wrong with me today. Clearly, this town already affected me way too much. I had never been so talkative on my first day, and I couldn't afford to let people get so close to me. I knew it would only hurt in the long run, so I had to stop it. Right now, before it got worse.

But part of me didn't want that.

First, there was Edward. Something about him was fascinating to me and I didn't know what. I mean, he seemed really nice and all that and he was obviously very attractive, but the way he kept looking at me… It made me want to continue talking to him.

Then, there was Angela. Part of me really wanted to join her for lunch and sit next to her in Spanish. She seemed so genuinely kind, it was hard to ignore the sinking feeling of disappointment when she sat down in front of me.

And on top of that, for some reason, Edwards' friends also seemed so alluring to me. I didn't want them to think negatively about me, while I normally never really cared about such things.

They were all toying with my head. Stop it!

I arrived home and thoughtfully chewed on my bottom lip. I needed a bath to clear my head. And a good novel, preferably something with a strong, female character who dealt with horrible crimes or something like that. A lot of blood was preferred.

Anything but a cheesy rom-com with a smart, outcast girl who fell in love with the most handsome and clever guy in school and he returned the favour. I didn't believe in those fairytales anymore.

And I definitely didn't want to read something like that, right now.

¨Bella, what did we tell you about biting your lip?¨ Renee came from the kitchen to welcome me home and frowned at me.

I rolled my eyes at her. ¨Whatever.¨

¨Hey, I don't appreciate that tone.¨

¨I don´t care, I´m going upstairs,¨ I spatted at her. I immediately regretted it, but today wasn't my day and I wasn't in the mood for my mother´s parenting. If I ever was.

I slammed the door of my room behind me, indicating I wanted to be left alone and looked at the still unpacked moving boxes in the corner. I opened the first box. Doing something productively might be better than doing nothing at all, I figured. And it might help me clear my head.

The first box contained all my black and boring clothes, which helped me stay invisible at my former schools. Clearly, they didn't help me at all in Forks. I needed to step up my game. I rolled my eyes. Forks really was a pain in my ass.

The second box contained all my colourful dresses and skirts. I sighed. These were the clothes I thoroughly enjoyed wearing, but they grabbed the attention of way too many people. I, unfortunately, had to learn that the hard way.

People would assume I must be bright, colourful and fun to be around, and in a way, I was. At least at home, I guess. But they needed to stay away from me, that was what I wanted.

And the third box contained my novels. The little gate-aways to my personal imagination. I smiled. I could read for hours and get completely lost in them. I often imagined I was a heroine of some bigger story, one that had yet to be written. But I guess, every teenager must feel that way at some point. And needless to say, I enjoyed unpacking this box the most, as it contained my most prized possessions.

Under all the books, I had hidden a few photographs that I secretly always took with me. It were pictures of Renee and Charlie. Very old pictures that I found hidden in a novel I once read, and that were not meant to be found. It almost was as if they hadn't changed a bit since those photos were taken.

They were always happy in them, and the affection they had for each other clearly showed. But, I always thought it was weird that we didn't have any pictures of the three of us. None.

¨Bells?¨

Oh shit, there was only one person who called me that. Charlie opened the door to my room. I quickly hid the photographs away. My parents didn't know I had found those pictures and I sure as hell wanted to keep it that way.

¨Yes, Dad?¨ I turned around, pretending to be as innocent as possible. I could become an actress with the way I sat there.

¨Your mother just told me how rude you were to her. Care to explain yourself?¨

I sighed. The best thing I could do was to run with it. ¨I´m sorry. I'll apologize to her. I just really had a bad day and I didn't like this school, at all.¨

Charlie's face fell and he nodded understandingly. I had trouble moving, not making any friends along the way and leaving everything behind once we left. Charlie knew that.

While Renee was happy each time we moved, Charlie knew it always took a toll on me. I was fine most of the time, don't get me wrong. And if everyone ignored me like they were supposed to do, everything would turn out fine. But right now, with all those interesting people I wanted to get to know better, it was even harder.

¨Bells, you´re too hard on yourself. I understand you hate moving around a lot, but it's not the end of the world to make a friend. You don't have to be alone all the time.

When we leave, you can still call them or text them. Or make new friends. You don't want to be alone, I can see that clearly.¨ Charlie wrapped his arms around me and awkwardly patted my back.

I don't know why, but angry tears filled my eyes. The way Charlie thought he could comfort me, made me both equally sad and frustrated. And I was so exhausted from this day and needed to vent. And Charlie or Renee seemed like the perfect target for that. Unfortunately, Renee was downstairs so I shot all my daggers at my dad.

Call it raging teenage hormones, if you must.

¨Don't you understand that your suggestion is way harder for me? I know we'll leave again. We always do. And it sucks. Why can't we be normal?¨ I shouted at him while I tried to fight back my tears.

Charlie winced at my words but I shoved him out of the way and went straight to the bathroom. Time for that bath I desperately needed. I let the bathtub fill with warm water and grabbed the nearest book I could find.

My parents let me cool down, which I definitely needed.

Once I lay in the warm water, I read a story about a courageous girl who had to save the president of another world from an assassin attack.

I was so deeply soaked in the intriguing storyline, that I completely missed the part where the heroine befriended and eventually fell in love with the assassin.

Damn it, I didn't want to read this. It reminded me of high school all over again. I couldn't even imagine getting close to someone at this point, let alone befriend him. Or worse, fall in love with him.

My mind drifted to Edward, his friends and Angela and I wondered what they were all doing right now. Probably not sitting in a bath and ignoring the rest of the world. And as much as I hated myself for it, I was excited to see them again tomorrow.

The next day at school was basically exactly the same as the first. Once I saw him, Mike tried to show me the way to my classroom. Angela encouragingly smiled at me whenever I saw her around. During lunch, Edwards' friends were still as intriguing as yesterday. Jessica and her friend, whom I now knew as Lauren, were still eagerly eying me out and waited until I did something stupid, which -unfortunately for me- happened quite a lot if you´re dressed only in black and naturally have the tendency to be a little klutz. Lauren grinned each time I walked past her, and I had to fight the urge to turn around and make a noise to scare her off.

I was positively sure she already thought I was some kind of a witch anyway.

And Edward tried his best to start a conversation with me again.

But there was one thing different today compared to yesterday, and that was my attitude. To Mike, I simply followed him around. And each time Angela smiled at me, I only nodded in her direction. I tried and succeeded to pay almost no attention to Edward´s friends and I ignored the gossiping duo as much as possible.

But with Edward, ignoring him seemed a bit harder than I imagined. I could almost feel his stare in my back each time I walked past him. And while he sat next to me during a couple of classes, he made sure to keep an eye on me every few minutes, almost inviting me in for a talk. His posture was open and each time I quickly looked at him to see if he still stared at me, he gave me one of his crooked grins which made me turn away from him even quicker. That grin made me feel something and I knew one thing for sure: I didn't like that feeling.

The week progressed this way. I was still immensely curious to anyone, but I mostly kept to myself. Each day, fewer people tried to talk to me and even though I was disappointed with that, I knew it was for the best.

Until I had Maths.

I was mindlessly doodling in my notebook, until I heard someone saw down in the chair next to mine. That made me curious. For the past week, I had been the loner new girl and no one paid any attention to me anymore, so why did someone bother?

I looked up, and saw that Edward´s small friend with the artistic clothes sat down next to me. I didn't see her boyfriend with the cowboy boots anywhere.

She smiled. From up close, her beauty was even more breathtaking than from the distance. She had short, dark hair that made her amber-coloured eyes stand out more. I realised they were the same unique colour as Edward´s.

Why I immediately thought of Edward, I had no idea.

Her smile was the kind of smile that made you smile back at the person, even though you had no idea why.

¨Hello,¨ she sang to me, and I noticed her voice sounded more like music than anything normal.

Her whole look seemed more like a fairy in a fantasy world than anything normal. The fairy princess and her long-lost cowboy, fighting against the cruel world of high school. Thinking about their adventures, I had to fight back my smile.

This was why I didn't have any friends, I suppose.

¨Hello,¨ I said back to her.

¨Sorry to bother you. Jasper´s sick and you know how it goes…,¨ She waved her hand somewhere in the distance.

¨It's… it's alright.¨ I stuttered, suddenly nervous.

¨I´m Alice, by the way.¨ The fairy whom I now knew was Alice, smiled again and showed her straight, white teeth.

¨Bella.¨

¨Nice to meet you, Bella. I hope I see you around more,¨ Alice chuckled to herself and I had no idea what she meant by that.

Before I had time to ask her why she was being so cryptic, who Jasper was and why she actually sat down next to me, she started talking again. As if she knew what I was going to ask her.

¨Jasper´s my boyfriend, you might´ve seen him taking this class. Oh, I love your sweater by the way.¨ She pointed at my sweater and I thought it was quite ironic that the only time I wore dark blue instead of my usual black, I received a compliment.

¨Thanks. I really like your style as well,¨ I admitted to Alice. Today she wore a rather unique type of blazer with a skirt. It suited her.

Her whole face lit up. ¨You really think so? That's what I´ve been telling my brother, Edward, all the time. But he constantly teases me about it. Do you know him?¨

That extremely attractive guy that sits next to me half of the time? Rings a bell. So, they were siblings instead of friends. But they seemed to be of the same age, so they might be twins, or something like that? I didn´t dare to ask her yet.

¨If it´s the same Edward from my English and Biology classes, then I sit next to him.¨

She grinned. ¨That's the one.¨

Feeling bold for some reason, I added. ¨Well, he had no reason to tease you. Your clothes suit you.¨

Alice smiled again. And for some reason, I felt a little bit jealous of her. At least, she dared to wear the clothes she wanted. I couldn't say that about myself. I wore clothes to fit in more but I admired Alice´s boldness.

Our lesson started and I made notes. Once the lesson ended, Alice turned to me and raised her brow.

¨Good luck with Eddie. If he ever annoys you, call him that nickname. He hates it.¨ Alice winked at me and dashed off.

I blinked at her in surprise and made my way to Biology. I realised I really had fun talking to Alice. Like, a lot.

Edward was already settled in Biology. He stared somewhere in the distance and I noticed his bronze hair looked a bit messy, as if he had put his hands in it just before the lesson started. I wondered what kept his mind busy.

Now that I had talked with his sister and realised I had fun doing so, I might´ve wanted to talk to him today as well. I mean, if one sibling is nice, the other can´t be bad either, right? Or, I was making excuses for myself, since I really and desperately wanted to know more about him.

Maybe Charlie was right. Maybe I did need some friends around me. What harm could it cause?

I sat down next to Edward, and as always, he smiled at me. But this time, I returned his smile.

This -of course- surprised him as I hadn't talked to him at all last week. I figured I needed to explain myself to him.

¨So, I just met your sister Alice.¨

He gave me a crooked smile and raised his eyebrow. ¨Oh no, what dirt do you have on me?¨

I giggled. Really, I giggled like a schoolgirl in a young adult novel. Who would've thought? ¨Only one nickname you don't like, but I won't use it, I swear.¨

Was I seriously flirting with him?

Just as his sister did in our previous class, Edward winked at me. When his sister did it, I thought it was a cute gesture but now he did it, and I felt my face reddened.

¨You better not. But why did Alice gave you that nickname?¨

I couldn't get that smile off my face, even if I tried. ¨Well, she told me you disliked her style.¨

Edward sighed. ¨I never told her I disliked it, it just isn't my cup of tea.¨

Feeling the need to protect Alice, I raised my brows at him. ¨It suits her.¨

¨Yeah, she is a bit extravagant.¨

I noticed that during our short conversation, we automatically moved closer towards the other, like two magnets, gravitating towards each other. I eagerly took everything in what Edward told me. The topic was so… Normal, and I loved it. I loved every second of it.

At this point in our conversation, Edward´s knees accidently touched mine underneath our table. He apologized and moved them out of the way. Then, only five minutes later when the class had already started, it happened again.

Only this time, he didn't move them. Or apologize. I glanced over and saw that Edward was actively taking notes, so he might´ve not noticed it. But I had and I didn't know what to do.

What I did know, however, was that my heart started beating faster and my cheeks turned pink. I was suddenly very conscious of the fact that Edward sat close next to me, he was very attractive and we had a really good conversation. And I suddenly became really aware of all that.

The corner of my mouth involuntarily lifted. I also noted that he smelled really good. Like, really damn good. Bottle it up and you have a best selling perfume.

I suddenly couldn't look at him anymore. I didn't know why, but he was too handsome, or something like that. His eyes were too annoyingly amber-coloured, that had to be it. It was truly distracting.

So, I also actively started taking notes to clear my head. I couldn't figure out what was happening to me, but I did know that I hadn't had this problem before his knees touched mine. So, I moved around a bit, because I thought if I lost contact with his body, things would be different and I could think straight again.

Which, luckily, worked. Once the bell rang, I quickly got up and went to my car, before I could embarrass myself any further than I already had. My face was flushed and the classroom was way too hot anyway. Imagine if I tried talking to him again. I was sure I couldn´t produce one single coherent sentence.

When I arrived home, I thought about Alice. I walked to the part of my closet where I left all my colourful clothing items, and chose a flowery skirt to wear to school tomorrow.

Time to be me again.

A/N: Alice was not harmed in the making of this chapter. She isn´t mad it´s called ´A Boring New Friend.´

She thinks it´s named after Edward.

He´s the boring sibling, after all

;)