"So… she smells really good, but you don't want to eat her?" Emmett asked doubtfully as he tossed the football from one hand to the other, before he launched it at me with startling speed. It was a bright sunny day in Forks, one of many according to Alice, and so my brothers and I were standing waist deep in the river behind our house as we chatted.

I caught the ball with ease, "No, not at all." I confirmed, before I threw the ball to Jasper.

Jasper caught it and studied me like I was a strange creature in a zoo, "Not even a little bit?" He raised a single suspicious eyebrow in my direction.

"No, Jasper. Not even a little bit." I droned, I could see the doubt in Jasper's mind and I rolled my eyes at the sudden influx of fictitious situations that I could find myself in. "Well of course, I imagine if she were bleeding profusely in front of me I would have some difficulty, but as it stands I just don't have any desire to-"

"Tear her throat out with your teeth?" Emmett cut me off with a teasing grin as he caught the ball Jasper had thrown at him.

"Not helpful." I glowered, which only made Emmett grin wider as he threw the ball to me. "Have either of you encountered this?" I asked as I turned the ball over in my hands before throwing it casually to Jasper.

"I've never been close enough to the girl to notice her scent, but I will be sure to make more of an effort when we get back to school." Emmett winked as he raised his hands to receive the ball from Jasper.

A peculiar bolt of anger flared through me at the thought and Jasper raised an enquiring eyebrow at me before smirking. "Ooh, careful there Em. Seems Edward's mighty attached to the human already." He teased as he launched the ball into Emmett's waiting hands.

I wanted to deny it, but I knew doing so would only make the pair of them pile on further, so instead I said. "Utterly useless, the pair of you. I meant have either of you come across a human, who's scent was beyond description, and yet did nothing to increase your thirst?"

As I finished my question I threw the ball to Jasper, he didn't move to catch it, instead letting it land in the water with a splash. Both of my brothers were staring at me as if I had grown a second head. Emmett's thoughts were filled with memories of when he had encountered his singer, and how he couldn't stop himself from tearing into her neck and splattering the woman's clean laundry with her own blood. Jasper, who had never encountered a singer, was instead considering all the humans he had turned or feasted upon during his time in the Southern Vampire Wars. Eventually both my brothers came out of their memories, seemingly having come to the same conclusion. My experience with Bella was wholly unique.

Jasper snatched up the football that had started to drift away with the current, "No. I can't say I have, brother." Silently in his head I heard him berate himself for the amount of human lives he had taken, choices he had made decades ago on which human to feed from based on which smelt sweeter. He grimaced to himself as he angrily threw the football in Emmett's direction.

Emmett had to jump slightly to catch the wayward ball, and when he landed he shrugged in my direction. "Sorry… Maybe she's not human?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "Of course she's human. What else could she be?" What an absurd notion. Bella Swan had a heartbeat, she was flesh and blood, the only strange thing about her was her silent mind.

I could hear Rosalie's footsteps on the grass as she approached, and I turned just in time for her to come into view. She eyed the three of us with thinly veiled scorn, shirtless and standing in the river, pale skin glistening like a thousand diamonds in the sunlight as we threw a football between us. You're all a bunch of children, seriously. She thought derisively, but I could detect an undercurrent of affection in her thoughts. Rosalie turned to Emmett, "Are you just about done here? I want to go hunting." Rosalie studied her fingernails while she waited for Emmett's response.

Emmett beamed at his mate and quickly threw the football to me without so much as a backwards glance before he charged through the water towards Rose. "Don't you dare-" Rose's warning was cut off by Emmett scooping her up in his arms. She squealed as Emmett started to run them back towards the house, "You're all wet! Put me down!" She was trying to sound angry, but her peels of laughter gave her away as Emmett ran them up to their room to get changed.

XxXx

The warm pulsing blood gushed from the open wound on the deer's neck, and as I clamped my mouth around the torn flesh it kicked and wailed in a futile attempt to free itself from my hold. I drank greedily, and when the creatures heart came to a stuttering stop I pulled what little blood I could from the quickly cooling corpse. I slowly stood up with a dissatisfied scowl on my face, the blood of a herbivore would certainly sustain me but it did almost nothing to quell the thirst that raged in my throat. It was the last day I would have to hunt without worrying about being home in time to leave for school, and I had hoped to make the most of it.

Edward? I heard Carlisle's mental voice call out for me.

"Here, Carlisle." I replied as I slashed at the deer's corpse with my razor sharp fingernails. I doubted that it would be discovered by a roaming hiker this far off a trail, but I didn't want to leave it to chance. At least this way it would look like a wolf was responsible for the carnage.

I could hear his footsteps as he changed direction to meet up with me, I was planning on heading up the mountain, to see if I could find some larger game. Care to join me? Carlisle directed his thoughts to me, and I could see flashes of wolves and mountain lions in his mind.

I waited until Carlisle came into view, "I'd like that." Carlisle smiled warmly at me and took off at a sprint, I ran along after him and quickly caught up and came to run at his side. As much as I tried to keep out of my family's heads sometimes I couldn't help it, and running alone in the forest with Carlisle I couldn't help but overhear his thoughts as he debated with himself on how best to begin what he was anticipating to be a difficult conversation.

"Just speak your mind, Carlisle." I said with a small hint of jest in my tone.

"Jasper told me that you have developed an interest in the chief's daughter, Bella Swan." Carlisle began slowly, gauging my reaction.

I silently cursed my brother, "I have not developed an interest." I scowled, "I find the girl interesting, sure, but that's it."

We turned in tandem, heading up the mountain. "It's okay if you have, son. You have been alone for a long time," Carlisle paused for a moment, "It's perfectly natural to crave some… companionship."

"It's not like that, Carlisle." The moment I said it, I knew it was a lie. My interest in Bella Swan wasn't exactly platonic. She held my interest in a way no one else ever had, and I had no way of explaining it. Her scent was entrancing, I wanted to be close to her in any capacity that she would allow. But I couldn't think like that, Bella was human, fragile and mortal. I would never put her in danger.

XxXx

When Monday finally arrived I was relieved, I would finally be able to see Bella again. My relief became worry when I couldn't find her in the thoughts of the other students, and for a moment I thought that she wasn't going to be coming to school today. I was sitting in my first class when I heard the sound of her truck roaring its way into the school parking lot.

My mind was torn, half listening to the lecture going on in front of me and the other half listening to the thoughts of the people in Bella's first class. Righteous fury roiled through me when I saw Bella through the mind of her English teacher. Bella had a large bruise nearly encompassing the entire left side of her face, the bruise seemed to be a few days old, bluish in the centre but yellow and green around the edges in various states of healing. And her lips, my God her beautiful lips, on her bottom lip there was a small cut and a small bruise blossomed out around it.

It didn't escape the notice of the students around her, and I was immediately bombarded with all of their thoughts and theories of what had happened. I couldn't stop myself from becoming consumed by it, and I had to know what had caused Bella to come to harm. A powerful urge to protect her coursed through me, but I stopped myself from indulging those feelings or investigating them further. I couldn't begin to entertain the notion of something beyond a simple friendship between me and this strange human. My urge to protect her included the desire to protect her from myself.

I listened into Bella's conversation with her friends at lunch, and I was glad to see that her friends were actually worried about her. However her excuse of falling down an embankment while hiking fell flat. The only explanation that made sense in my mind was that someone had hurt her, and she was lying to protect them. Whoever it was wasn't going to live long enough to do it a second time.

Waiting for Bella to come to biology was torture. The fact we were lab partners seemed to be the only logical excuse I could find to talk to her. I was worried that if I approached her outside of class that it would raise suspicions among her friends.

When she finally walked into class I noticed that her bruises already looked better, more healed. Which was ridiculous, since only a few hours had passed since this morning, and yet I was looking at the evidence walk towards me. Bella's eyes fell to the microscope and box of slides on the lab table and she smiled, her eyes twinkling in happiness. She quickly settled down in her seat and listened to Mr Banner as he rattled on about the lab we were doing.

I tried to be discreet as I stared at Bella, her bruise no longer had any smudges of blue or purple and instead was all yellowing and greenish as it entered the final stages of healing. I was still trying to figure out a way to bring up the subject of her bruised and battered face when Bella quickly grabbed the microscope and clipped in the first slide. She expertly adjusted the instrument before she looked down the lens, I didn't miss her wince as it scrapped over her bruise.

"Anaphase." Bella declared quickly,

I raised an eyebrow in confusion, there was no greeting no 'how are you', she was just straight down to business. "Mind if I check?"

Bella scoffed and rolled her eyes as she pushed the microscope across the lab table, "Be my guest."

She was clearly in a bad mood, although I couldn't puzzle out why. Once again I found myself wishing I could read her mind, if I knew why she was upset I would be able to do something about it.

I quickly checked the slide, "Anaphase." I confirmed as I wrote the answer on the work sheet.

"Yup, like I said." Bella scowled,

I didn't want to upset her anymore that I already had, but I also had to have answers. "So, what happened?" I quickly clipped in the next slide and checked it, "Prophase."

Bella seemed to ignore my question as she stared at me with hard eyes, "Mind if I check?" she snarked.

I bit back a smile as I silently pushed the microscope towards her. Bella was almost adorable in her anger, but I couldn't let her see that I thought that. She stuck me as the kind of girl who wouldn't appreciate being called adorable. S

Bella looked at the slide, "Prophase." She seemed reluctant to admit that I was correct.

"Like I said," I replied, using her words from before. I tried to catch her eye before I said, "Are you going to tell me?"

Bella fiddled with the slides, "I fell over while hiking," she muttered bitterly as she checked the new slide "Interphase." Before I had the chance to say anything she shoved the microscope in my direction.

I bit back a frustrated sigh as I checked the slide and wrote down the answer. "I don't think that's the truth." I challenged carefully. I wanted her to know she could trust me, that she could let me in and I wouldn't see it as a sign of weakness. I wanted her to want to be my friend as much as I wanted to be hers. As I waited for her to reply I clipped in the next slide, "Metaphase."

Bella quickly checked my answer, "And are you the arbiter of all things truthful?" She mocked, and I could see from the corner of my eye she was looking at me. I made a show of writing down the last two answers on the sheet carefully, once I was finished I slowly turned to face her.

"No, but I can tell when you're being untruthful." I said softly. I looked at her worryingly as I imagined all the different ways she could have been hurt.

"What happened to me being hard to read?" Bella smirked playfully and I couldn't help mirroring her expression with my own teasing smile.

"Don't worry, you are still a mystery to me." I teased her gently and I rejoiced in the way her eyes glistened happily and her heart sputtered nervously under the gaze of my smile. I couldn't explain why Bella Swan made me feel the way she did, and to be honest I didn't care to. I shifted closer to her, "Are you going to tell me the truth now?" I implored.

Bella cleared her throat, "I got into a fight." she murmured.

That didn't seem likely, but I could see no indication she was lying to me. Her heartbeat, while a little elevated, was steady, and she was calm and composed with her answer. I frowned in confusion, "You got into a fight?" I made no effort to hide my astonishment, "With who?"

Bella eyes left mine and stared down at the lab table, "I don't know." She muttered angrily before she glanced in my direction.

"You don't know who you got into a fight with?" I repeated dubiously. Bella didn't seem like the type of person to pick fights with random people, hell she didn't seem like the type of person to get into fights at all. Suddenly Bella's anger seemed less adorable and more… tangible. I tried to reconcile this new piece of information with the things I already knew about her, and the things I had assumed. Was Bella quick to anger? Or was she defending herself? Did her father know about this fight? Hell, her father was chief of police, surely he not only knew but knew exactly who was involved. There was no whispers of arrests in the thoughts of any of the students or adult staff, so I could determine with some confidence that if Bella's father had indeed found the person responsible for Bella's injuries that they weren't arrested for them.

Bella's nose wrinkled as she narrowed her eyes at me, "Yes, that's right."

I wanted to ask more questions, but Mr Banner interrupted me before I had the chance. Without greeting either of us he grabbed our answer sheet from the table. He scanned it slowly, his thoughts loud and clear. This boy is such a show off sometimes. I don't mind having an intelligent student, but not if he's going to take learning opportunities away from others.

"Mr Cullen, you didn't think Isabella deserved a chance with the microscope?" He frowned at me.

I was quick to defend myself, "Actually, Bella answered 3 out of the 5."

Mr Banner nodded Great. Now there's two of them. "Yes, I see. Good job." He dropped the paper back on the table and I turned back to Bella, eager to finish our conversation.

"How can you not remember who you got in a fight with?" I asked exasperatingly.

"Oh you know how it is. So many assholes, so little time. You lose track of them all eventually." Bella shrugged before she ducked down and grabbed her backpack. She hauled it onto her lap and rummaged through it for a moment before she produced her book.

I wanted to say something else, anything else, but Bella's entire body screamed leave me alone! She had hunched down onto herself, shielding her face from me with her hair. I slumped back on the lab stool and frowned to myself. There had to be something I could do to show Bella she could trust me, that I could be a good friend. I had never had to worry about making human friends before, and I was ashamed to admit that I was a little out of my depth. As I stole a glance at Bella I resolved to ask Carlisle for advice on how to befriend my enigmatic lab partner.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.