Music
"Do you think Alice is upset with me?" Edward asked.
Bella glanced over at Alice's empty chair. Alice was sitting in the nurse's office with Jasper waiting for Carlilse to pick them up.
Bella shook her head. "No."
If anyone was in trouble with Alice it was Jasper. He was the one who threw up on her high heels. All Edward did was make the mistake of sharing a slice of pizza.
"Will Jasper be alright?" Edward asked.
Bella smirked. "Eventually."
Jasper would be fine. He was probably laying on a cot chuckling over how he'd once again beat the system. He'd keep grinning like a fool until Alice told him he'd be coming along when she went shopping for replacement shoes.
Edward slumped down in his seat. "I didn't mean for this to happen."
"It's not your fault," Bella said. "Jasper should have known better."
Like Midnight always found a way outside Jasper always found a way to beg, borrow, or steal his way to pizza. None of his foster siblings would blame Edward for what happened. They'd all fallen victim to Jasper's puppy dog eyes a time or two.
"Did Jasper know he would get sick?" Edward asked.
"Yes," Bella replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Then why did he eat it?"
Bella shrugged. Why did Jasper keep eating pizza? Why did Emmett love Rose? Why did Edward insist he was a prince? Sometimes people did things for reasons that escaped her.
"Settle down, settle down," Mr. Bell said. "It's time to get started."
If anything, the room got louder. Music appreciation class wasn't exactly populated by the best and brightest of Fork's High.
Mr. Bell sighed and hit the gong three times. Where'd he'd gotten that awful instrument, Bella would never know. It felt like every cell in her body was vibrating.
"As I was saying," Mr. Bell said when their ears stopped ringing. "It's time to get started. Today, we'll be continuing our unit on Bach. I'm going to play one of his most famous compositions for you and we'll discuss its significance."
Mr. Bell hit a button on the stereo causing Ava Maria to play.
Edward gasped. "Bella!"
"Notebook," Bella hissed.
Edward started writing and didn't stop until class was over.
Study Hall
"Why didn't you tell me about the magical music box?" Edward asked as they claimed a table in the back corner of the library.
Bella shrugged. "It hadn't really occurred to me."
Edward had seen cars, TVs, and an entire hospital full of medical equipment. How was it that a dusty old stereo that predated her was the thing that impressed him?
"I didn't even know you still had music," Edward said, eyes still misty.
"Where have you been," Phil shouted.
"With a friend," Renee said.
"You were with a friend. I see." Phil paused, sucking all the air out of the house. "Tell me something. Was this friend a man?"
Stormy hopped onto Bella's lap and started purring. She didn't seem to mind the salty tears landing on her fur. Hands shaking, Bella plugged in her headphones and allowed the Beatles to carry her away to a place where her mom didn't cry at night.
"Thank you for taking me to school," Edward said. "I never thought I'd hear music again."
A pit formed in Bella's stomach as she thought of Edward spending night after night in his silent room alone with his thoughts.
"Let me show you something," Bella said, pulling out her iPod.
She put in one of her earbuds and gave the other to Edward. "Listen."
Edward froze when Elenor Rigby started to play.
"It's just the music," Bella told herself. "That fluttering in your stomach has nothing to do with that wonderful, crooked smile."
Gym
"So you're telling me I can throw this ball at anyone on the other side of the room and I won't get in trouble?" Edward asked Emmett.
Emmett smirked. Yep."
Edward grinned and picked up a hard rubber ball. "I think I'm going to like gym."
Before Bella could react, the ball sailed across the room and struck Mike in the groin. With all the drama of ten school plays, Mike collapsed and curled up in the fetal position.
Bella felt bad for him until she remembered what happened in art class. Maybe it was far past time for someone to take Mike down a peg or two.
"Prince!" Coach Barns shouted. "See me after class!"
Biology
"Did you think Edward will get expelled?" Ashley whispered to Jessica.
Bella looked up at the clock. Coach Barns was probably giving Edward the tongue lashing of a lifetime for taking out Forks High's golden boy.
"Probably. Being that hot has got to be illegal," Jessica said. Maybe they'll send him to some special school for supermodels."
Bella started fidgeting with her pen. She hoped Edward was sticking to his cover story. He'd get sent straight to room zero if he mentioned anything about princes, monsters, or true love to the least sympathetic member of the faculty.
"On the off chance, he doesn't get expelled, I think I'll take him to homecoming," Jessica said. "My parents are going out of town and I'll have the house to myself all weekend."
In a brief moment of white-hot rage, Bella snapped her pen in two.
"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Ashley asked.
Jessica applied a fresh coat of lip gloss. "For now."
Bella stared at the blue ink staining her hands in shock. Where had that come from? What did she care if Edward took Jessica to the dance? It wasn't like Bella felt weak at the knees whenever he smiled.
Just before the bell rang, Edward and Mike entered the room. Edward was walking with his head held high while Mike, who was walking with a slight limp, looked like a child who'd had his favorite toy stolen.
Edward sat down on the stool next to Bella's. "Guess what, Bella. Coach Barns wants me to stay after school."
Bella signed. "Detention?"
Fantastic. Detention on his first day of school. Edward had beaten Emmett's record from last year.
"No," Edward said. "He wants me to try out for the football team."
Mike, who had joined Jessica at the table behind them, grumbled.
"You're not joining the football team," Bella said.
Edward's mental health was already shaky at best. There was no telling what a concussion would do to him.
"Why not?" Edward asked. "Coach Barns says I have a great arm."
"Then wait for spring and try out for baseball."
Hopefully, by then he'd be over the whole Prince Edward thing and have learned to act like a normal teenager.
"Emmett is on the team," Edward says. "Why can't I play too?"
Emmett playing football made sense. The guy was built like a tank and had a bottomless supply of crude jokes. In sharp contrast, Edward wept over ham sandwiches and dead birds. The poor guy would be eaten alive if he dared set foot in the locker room.
"Do you even know what football is?" Bella asked.
Edward shook his head. "No, but Emmett told me it's a lot of fun. Anyone who's anyone plays."
Emmett said a lot of things most of which were complete nonsense.
Bella lowered her voice to a whisper. "What about saving Forks?"
Surely he'd lose interest in football when he remembered the town was overrun by "monsters."
Edward shrugged. "Some things are more important than saving Forks."
"Like what?" Bella asked.
Before Edward could elaborate, Mr. Banner clapped twice signaling the start of class. "Today, we'll be doing one of the most anticipated laps of the year." He pulled the white sheet off the table at the front of the room. "We'll be dissecting frogs."
Edward shuttered. "We're going to be cutting open dead animals?"
Bella cursed under her breath. How could she have forgotten that it was dissection day? Edward was probably just seconds away from a very public breakdown she'd have to find some way of explaining. He should never have been allowed to go to school.
Bella looked over at Edward who looked like he was going to be sick. "Are you okay? Do you want to leave?"
Maybe she could convince everyone both Jasper and Edward had come down with a nasty case of the flu.
Edward took a shaky breath. "No, I'm fine. Let's just get this over with."
Mr. Banner placed a frog on their table. Edward squeezed his eyes shut and started mumbling the Lord's Prayer.
Kate and Tanya exchanged worried looks when Mr. Banner handed Bella a scalpel. They picked up their table and moved it two feet forward. Bella couldn't say she blamed them. After the unfortunate incident in chemistry class, keeping their distance was probably a smart decision. Bella plus anything sharp, corrosive, or fragile was a recipe for disaster.
"I'll be right back," Mr. Banner announced. "We're a few worksheets short. Don't wreck the place while I'm gone this time."
Bella looked around the room. Twenty students holding scalpels. Terrariums of animals begging to be set free. A closet full of chemicals with an easy-to-pick lock. What could possibly go wrong?
As expected, chaos erupted the second Mr. Banner turned the corner. Frogs lost limbs. The answers for next week's test were pilfered from the file cabinet. Nick challenged Jason to a fencing match with wooden rulers. Never one to pass up an opportunity for blackmail, Jessica whipped out her phone and started recording.
By the two-minute mark, the only students still in their seats were Edward and Bella. Something bounced off Bella's hand and landed on their lab table. Edward narrowed his eyes at the crumpled piece of paper. It was another drawing of Bella. Whoever drew it had definitely been paying attention to last week's human anatomy unit.
"Who drew this?" Edward snapped.
He turned around to look for the perpetrator only to come face to face with Mike's partially disemboweled frog.
"Kiss me," Mike said in a high-pitched voice. "Maybe I'll become a prince!"
Edward let out a blood-curdling scream and fell off his stool.
"Edward!" Bella cried.
She crouched down next to him and felt for a pulse. "Edward, are you okay? Talk to me."
Edward's eyes didn't open.
Bella's vision grew hazy. No. No. No. She couldn't lose him too.
