"I have a fun project for you all," The whole class groaned at Mr. Banner's words except for Edward and I. For me, project usually meant to work on something big for this Biology class by yourself, in a group, or with a partner. I hoped I didn't have to work with Edward. "Since we're learning about DNA and genetics, you will be paired off to another student to know more about them like what traits they have that are either dominant or recessive..."

I blocked out Mr. Banner's lecture about the DNA project. While other students beamed and looked relieved at having partners, I groaned silently on the inside. I just hoped I would get paired with Angela, Jessica, or even someone like Lauren or Mike.

Mr. Banner started to pair off the students.

"Katie Marshall and Eric Yorkie."

Jessica said before that they had a thing for each other. I'm sure they're happy they got paired together.

"Austin Marks and Ben Cheney."

I heard a happy high five in the back from them. I looked over at Angela and she just chuckled and shook her head at the two. They were best friends.

"Lauren Mallory and Tyler Crowley."

Lauren groaned and made a face even though Tyler did look pleased. I'm sure she wanted Conner instead.

"Mike Newton and Jessica Stanley."

"Edward Cullen and Bella Swan."

Great.

My partner had to be Edward Cullen. The guy who was secretly a vampire, but acted as human to blend in with the rest of us. I'd rather have anyone else, but him. If only I could ask Mr. Banner to switch my partner.

"May I have someone else?" Edward asked him, already doing what I've wanted to do.

"No. Everyone is already assigned to their own partners. You have to be with them. No switching." Mr. Banner forbidden it.

Edward sulked in his seat and I'm sure I didn't look too thrilled either. The last encounter I had with any of the Cullens was his sister, Alice. I rejected their invitation that they wanted me to sit at their table for lunch. He must have not liked that. Now, that Edward was my partner for this Biology project, to avoid him seemed almost impossible.

As long as we could focus on the work and only that, hopefully we won't have any problems.

After Biology was over, I went to Edward the first thing before he could escape the classroom like always to avoid me. Sometimes, he'd always have a weird face like I smelled horribly. But I knew I never smelled bad. I never wore perfume and always took a shower in the morning. To him, it's like I smell awful. Maybe he could have a strong scent.

But shouldn't my blood be enough to want to...drink me? Or maybe that was the problem. My blood was too tempting for him.

I really should have a different partner.

"We can work at my house," I immediately set the ground rules. I would never be in a house filled with vampires. Sam definitely wouldn't want me to be there either. "Char - my Dad will be working late anyway. Is that okay?"

His copper eyebrows furrowed into concern.

"You're going to be in the house by yourself?"

"It's not like it's my first time," I rolled my eyes and then sounded confident. "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

"Why don't we work at my house?" He suggested and I knew that'd be a bad idea.

"Oh, no, that's fine. I don't want to impose on your family-"

"You're not. We're doing homework and we're partners, aren't we?" Edward flashed his crooked smile at me and it was like it had the effect to dazzle me. "My mother would love to make dinner for you."

I knew I shouldn't get so hypnotized by his dazzling charm. We're not supposed to be friends and I didn't want anything more to happen between us.

"Edward, I don't want us to be friends. Having your mother cook for me is a bit too much, don't you think? Just so you know, I'm dating someone and-"

"Is it that man who drops you off?" Edward's topaz eyes narrowed down suspiciously.

"Yes." I didn't hesitate to answer.

"I don't trust him, Bella," He frowned in disapproval. "There's just something about him-"

"I don't care if you do trust Sam or not, Edward!" I let my voice raise a little angrier, but tried to control it because other students for the class started to file in. Even Mr. Banner turned his head to us in suspicion at my small outburst. I grabbed Edward by his arm and it was like he's cold to the touch. I couldn't believe how freezing he was like an icicle. Compared to Sam, he was like a space heater. My hand instantly released him once we're out of the classroom and in the hallway for privacy, ignoring the others walking by.

"I know, Sam. You clearly don't." I hissed. But I didn't mean to say his name so Edward wouldn't know anything more about him.

"I'm only advising you to be careful around him, Bella," Finally, he had changed the subject probably to placate me. "Anyway, my mother would only make you food. She loves to do that for guests. It's not like she'll be going out of her way."

With the many students walking to their classes and being at their lockers, there was a lot of eyes and ears for me to not make another scene. I really shouldn't accept another invitation from a Cullen, but there were people around and he was so persistent that I couldn't refuse.

"Fine," I begrudgingly accepted his invite. "Today, we'll work on the project, but if we don't finish it, we'll be at my house some other day. Okay?" I demanded.

He flashed his crooked smile at me. "Okay."

"My boyfriend will drop me off." That made his smile vanish to almost a disgusted scowl again.

He thought he may have me, but he can't.

"Fine. You'll come over to my place at five?" He asked sounding a bit enthused.

"Yes. You'll just have to give me the directions."

I wrote his address down on a small scrap piece of paper from one of notebooks. Then I kept it inside my back pack.

His regular smile returned, topaz eyes looking brighter. "I'll be eagerly awaiting for your arrival, Bella."

Then Edward left me alone and went to the next class. I was about to follow him since we had the same class together.

My partner was a vampire and I could pray Sam wouldn't be too angry with me that I decided to go to the said vampire's house.

Jessica and Lauren thought I was so lucky to have Edward Cullen as my partner. I'd be willing to have Angela's partner, but couldn't do that to her knowing she'd be with a literal vampire.

After school was over, I gathered my things from my locker for what I needed. Then I saw my boyfriend's familiar car at the parking lot, and before I could go there, Edward reminded me to come over to his house. I was annoyed by him and promised that I would. Then I went to Sam's car and sat next to him on the passenger's seat.

"You look irritated." Sam observed after welcoming me with a kiss.

Before I could set the bomb on him, I decided to go safe and ask a question first.

"What does it take for you to phase?"

That question seemed to have made him get taken aback for a moment.

"Before I imprinted on you, it was my inability to control my anger. Anything would snap me off. It would still be my temper, but I'm trying to work that out. Now that you're my imprint, it's only when you're involved like in life threatening danger. Why?"

"Please, don't phase on me when I tell you this." I prepared him and mentally brace myself for his reaction.

He was confused, but made the promise as he looked into my eyes. "Never."

"My Biology teacher got us do a project and put us into partners and he...he paired me with Edward. He wanted to switch, but my teacher didn't allow it. Everybody was already paired. I wanted to work on it at my house, but Edward wouldn't let us and we're going to work it at his house and-"

"Easy there, Bella." Sam gently held onto my shoulders to calm me down.

"Sorry," I muttered my apology. "I was just worried how you'd react."

Sam did look like he was trying to control his temper.

"I am definitely not happy about that you're doing this project with Cullen, but there's nothing I can do about it if neither of you can switch partners. I'll drive you there to his house-"

"I already told him that you will. He knows."

"If anything goes wrong, if there's any signs of danger that you may be in, or if any of them try to harm you in any way, please, Bella, don't hesitate to call me," Sam ordered seriously being very urgent if the project meetup went awry. I could even feel how adamant he was, and if it was anything like the Alpha Orders he told me about once, I'd definitely do what he said no question.

"I'll be there within a second."

"I will call you if anything goes wrong." I promised and sealed it with a kiss, missing his warm and soft lips.

We could've kept going until I realized we're still in the school's parking lot. Unfortunately, we had to stop and he drove me home. Charlie would be at the house late because of his double shift so he didn't know Sam took me there.

"Do I...smell to you?" I awkwardly asked him unsure of how to word it.

He glanced at me in amusement. "You don't smell that bad to me."

I playfully rolled my eyes. "No, I mean, I think Edward can smell my scent, but he always acts like he doesn't like it. So, I thought he's...trying to control himself around me."

"That could be true. Your scent is extremely tempting and delicious."

"What do I smell like?"

"Sweet, but not sickening sweet like vanilla, but like flowers."

"How about Edward? What does he smell like to you?"

"I haven't met Edward close enough to smell him, but I've met their kind before while I patrolled," He made a face. "They just reeked of death, like a rotting corpse. They all smell the same."

Later, when he pulled up to my driveway, I got out of Sam's car. I managed to do my homework while not letting Sam distract me.

He wanted his scent to be all over me so the Cullens would smell it. In a wolf sense, it was to mark his claim and territory on me, but he told me there was also another way to do that. To seal it so everyone would know.

But the only way that would happen was if we'd be...intimate.

I'm more than ready to make love to my imprint.

But we never had a proper first date yet. He did promise that we'll go to the bonfire. Last time, we scheduled it for the weekend, but I went to Port Angeles with Jessica and Angela. But I won't consider as the bonfire as our first date; I'd hear the stories and legends about the Quileutes and meet the council members. That seemed like a more important gathering than anything.

When it was close to five, that's when we started to leave.

I gave Sam the directions to the Cullens' house. After we passed by the Calawah River and other houses, we're deep into the misty forest. It was like the Cullens were living off grid. What seemed like a few miles, the woods thinned out, and we were suddenly in a small meadow, or maybe a lawn?

The house was extraordinarily beautiful and graceful. Probably a hundred years old. It was painted a soft faded white, three stories tall, rectangular and well proportioned.

I've always heard from school the Cullens were loaded, but never knew how much they were. I didn't know what to expect from them other than the house was filled with vampires. The ancient cedar trees must've held a lot of secrets from what they've seen of the peculiar family. Sam's car was the only car in sight. I could hear a river close by that was hidden not too far.

"Wow..." I breathed, gazing at the splendor that's the Cullen's mansion. The words just slipped out of my mouth.

"Nothing special." Sam muttered, glowering at it.

"Please, be civil with them at least, Sam." I pleaded.

"Remember, if anything goes wrong-"

"I'll call you, I know," I kissed him in assurance. "I promise."

He was a little satisfied with that, but I knew there was still tension brewing inside of him. I wonder how his wolf felt knowing there was vampires among us that's a couple of feet away and I'd be with them for a couple of hours.

Sam led me to the entrance of the mansion and he rang the doorbell. His large, warm hand was holding onto mine protectively all the way to the front doorstep and he rang the doorbell. Even the doorbell had an old, musical charm. He pulled me closer to his side, and his hand that held my hand was now onto my waist. Maybe he could hear one of them coming. He did act vigilant. Hopefully, it would just be Edward answering the door.

The door did open, and thankfully, it was him.

"Hello, Bella," Edward greeted being polite. I didn't expect that from him having Sam with me. He could probably sense that Sam was a wolf from his vampiric scent. His uncongenial topaz eyes did glance at Sam for a briefly and I noticed Sam narrowed his own dark eyes down at him. "This must be your boyfriend, I presume?"

"Yes, his name is Sam." I answered.

"Sam Uley." Of course, he had to make his whole name known.

Edward looked like he was going to say something for a second, but decided against it. Like Sam, he acted civil. "Nice to meet you, Sam."

Sam just nodded in agreement to turn to me. "Remember to call if you need me." He recollected the dire advice.

"Promise."

It was typical of Sam that he would kiss me right in front of Edward. Such an alpha move.

Then he gave one last glare to Edward and he left for his car and drove away.

"Let's get to work, shall we?" Edward suggested once Sam left and allowed me inside his house.

Author's Note: I was going to write some more, but it got too long for this chapter. So stay tuned for the next one! :)