DISCLAIMER: ALL CANON CHARACTERS GO TO TEAM MEYER! ALL NEW CHARACTERS TO TEAM ME!
*Edward peers at the chapter on my screen* You sure they're going to like it?
*I smile at the reads section* I hope so...
As expected, thanks to Stephanie Meyer, Edward Cullen didn't come to school.
Having read the book just hours before my arrival in this world, most details were fresh in my mind but I couldn't remember how long it was before he pulled himself back together enough to come back.
With each passing day, I eased up in my new surroundings and Bella – who wasn't as incompetent to be my newly allotted best friend – grew tenser. How did I know? Well, we had this conversation when I finally got tired of seeing her clench up during lunch.
"Bella, sweetheart, stop losing sleep over this one guy," I'd said.
"I'm not...it's just..." she'd bit her lip.
"Just what...?" I'd asked.
"Do you think it was something about me? Did you see him glare at me?" she asked.
To be honest, I knew it was true. I mean in the book, Meyer wanted us to think Bella felt an instant connection between herself and Edward so she slipped that one in on us. Well, this was real life...or as real as it could get anyways.
It kind of irked me that she thought that. He glared at her. Big deal; maybe he was just a jerk, but no, why would Bella think of that?
"Really Bella, maybe he's just a douche, there really isn't that much of a scarcity of those." I'd said.
Without waiting for a reply I'd walked out of her room.
Yeah, so that hadn't worked. I spent the next few days getting to know the minor characters. I found Jessica wasn't that much of a resentful fool, Mike was a hopeless Casanova, Eric was actually quite nice and Angela who seemed very shy could actually become very outspoken if properly prodded. Lauren wasn't just a mean bitch thrown in to provide friction for Bella and Tyler was just as much into Lauren as she into him.
They seemed to find me a lot easier to get along than Bella as Angela had quietly told me so when I was trying to pull her out of her shell. Well, that had been flattering and also a little worrying. Shouldn't they be pulling on Bella like a tug of war rope?
I also improved my relationship with Charlie and kept in touch with Renee through the phone. She was worried about Bella but seemed thankful for the daily updates and any juicy gossip I could pass on. Charlie had seemed to take me for the younger, pampered and spoilt rotten daughter he never had. We joked, teased Bella sometimes and even watched the news and games together.
He would discuss some of his cases with me and I would give him some suggestions all thankfully belonging to me since Meyer hadn't seemed to be much interested in his job. Turns out, a police chief's job is pretty interesting.
Bella had taken to clucking around like a mother hen. She even dragged me food shopping with her even though Charlie and I both protested we were fine with the junk food. Teasing of course, the burgers were good but it had been a while I'd had anything else.
Bella swung by to read Wuthering Heights and kept on reading while I broiled some chicken pieces and baked some potatoes. What, I never said I can't cook.
Bella came down to eat giving me an almost impressed look as Charlie entered the house, calling out a greeting. "Hey, rat enchiladas are ready!" I called.
"Huh," he asked rushing into the kitchen with a petrified expression on his face and Bella elbowed me, pulling down salad bowls and some veggies as I set the table. "Relax, dad, she's just messing with you," Bella said.
Ever the peace keeper, I sighed.
"Want to catch the last game, T?" Charlie called. "Nope, if I bail, Bella might scalp me!" I said and Bella elbowed me again.
Yeah, that was how I kept the silence between father and daughter from making me want to pick Charlie's gun up and shoot myself in the face.
Around me the two silent saints were talkative, guess my latent – and slightly lazy – energy was contagious.
Of course, it wouldn't be Bella if she didn't ruin the five minutes of jokes I'd cracked. How...? By bringing in the Cullens of course...
I tuned out most of his angry protestations about how the people of this town something and how the Cullens were very good mannered – well of course they were, they probably had classes for that in their times – and I got up to watch the last few minutes of the game while working on my English homework.
The weekend passed without incident until Monday where a large event took place.
It snowed.
Now, I know it isn't that big of a deal but for me it was. I loved snow; it was a lot prettier than rain and a lot easier to have fun in.
"Ew, snow," there went my killjoy best friend. "You don't like snow?" Mike asked, coming up behind us. "It's all fun until it starts melting in your socks." She said.
"Well, there's a simple solution for that; don't wear loose socks and shoes," I said happily and high fived Mike as he suddenly stumbled forwards, his gelled hair dripping.
"Ooh, snap," I said as I watched Eric amble off.
"Hey, T, you want me to show you how to snowball fight?" he asked, his eyes fixed on Eric's retreating figure. "You bet I can take you both down," I scooped up some snow and lobbed it at Eric.
The aim was a little off so it missed his head but smacked right around his collar, making him look around to us.
"Hey, not cool," he yelled.
"Not cool enough? Here comes cool," Mike sent another which hit him straight in the face.
Within minutes there was a three way snowball fight in which guess what, we forgot lunch. "We'll do it again," he promised as we walked quickly to Biology, dripping snow behind us.
Chuckling slightly, we went off to our tables. Bella shook her head at me and I winked at her, shaking my hair at her. "Tulika, don't..." she pushed at me and I laughed with Mike as he shook his hair at her too. She swatted me away and I nearly slipped when I saw my table was not empty.
Holy gods...when did he get here? What day is it? Hang on, what century is it?
Clear your mind, you idiot, my brain yelled at me.
You are the mind, you clear yourself, I yelled back.
My mind immediately went slate clean as I walked slowly towards my desk and Mr. Wet and Dishevelled Cullen. Hmm, why did he have to be so sinfully good looking? I might as well break my rule and find myself a hot vampire. OK, I needed to slap myself later for that.
Now thinking these thought sort of messed up with my carefully arranged thoughts of the truck's gas mileage. I dropped into the seat and shook out my hair, unzipping my jacket and tossing it on the empty seat at the back.
I pulled up my shirt sleeves and used a pencil to wind up my hair up and back into a messy bun. A couple of guys gave me impressed looks as I leaned back and raised my eyebrows at them. They hurriedly turned back and I heard a distinct chuckle from beside me.
I turned and looked at him. Time to face the music, or a very good-looking bipolar vampire, whatever worked.
"The Prodigal returns, I see," I said and grinned at him.
He smiled back. "I had to take a short break; personal reasons," he said.
I mentally rolled my eyes, sorry Edward, your 'personal reasons' aren't as personal as you'd think if every hyped up teen in my world knows them, I thought while loudly humming the tune to Goosebumps.
I turned around to see Bella gazing at Edward with an interested look on her face and something in me stilled. Oh Bella, if only you knew the heavy duty stuff he'd bring to your life...
I quickly glanced at the boy next to me to see he was squinting lightly in my direction, no doubt trying to sift through my jumbled thoughts. Shouldn't he be more intrusive for Bella? Well, clearly, he finds you crazier...
Shut up brain...
"Ok, boys and girls, let's go for the phases of mitosis. The slides are onion root tip cells, and out of order," Mr. Banner began the class and we turned around to look at him.
Oh right, the infamous biology class scene...now what the hell was the order in which the slides were in? Anaphase, Prophase...? No, no, Prophase, Anaphase...yeah, that's right.
"Get started," he said and I glanced around to see people shuffle towards the microscope while some just gaped at the slides. I saw Bella pull the microscope towards her with an almost smug look on her face and smirked a little. Seems like little Bella isn't so sweet and docile after all...
"Ladies first, partner?" I looked to Edward and blinked.
Now, when Bella described Edward's heart-stopping 'crooked' smile, I always pictured Rob doing a weird thing with his mouth. It wasn't my fault that Meyer always made the smile sound as if someone had taken a rock and smashed it up.
No, the smile adorning our own friendly vampire was definitely not broken and a long call from weird. It was more of a smirk, one side of his plump lips lifted to look arrogant and hot at the same time.
Um...Tulika, you're staring. Stop staring, you're not a staring kind of girl...you're stealing Bella's best performance stunt; my brain nudged me into motion.
"Or I could -," he began but I was already pulling the microscope towards me; my mouth rolling out a hasty line to make up for the previous bit of self embarrassment, not that Edward could tell the difference. To him I was probably just another of the staring idiots.
"Why, thank you, I'll be happy to start," I said, matching his polite and gentleman vocation easily.
What, I was a lady...I guess.
I snapped the slide in and glanced at it, feeling surprised that I actually managed to know what it was. Looks like Biology back at home was a good bet after all.
"Prophase," I said, and looked at him. "I supposed you want to check?" I asked. He looked surprised but took the object anyways, casting a glance briefer than mine at it. "You're right," he said.
I nodded and wrote it down on the worksheet, taking care to make my handwriting look nice, so it wouldn't look like a hieroglyph next to his.
He switched out the slide and looked at it, "Anaphase," he said and I copied that down as well, before handing him the sheet. I held out my hand for the slide and he handed it to me, his fingers brushing mine. We glanced at each other but didn't say anything. At least there wasn't any of that clichéd 'I felt a jolt at his touch' stuff. Guess this was even more real than I assumed.
This time when I looked at it, I was a little stumped. Back from studying home I was pretty sure it had to be Inter-phase or Metaphase but I wasn't completely sure. Ah well, looks like I'll be copying off Meyer...
"Inter-phase," I said and he jotted it down, nodding, this time not asking to check it.
I passed the microscope back to the centre of the counter and looked at Bella to see her smiling at me, giving me thumbs up. I rolled my eyes but returned it when her expression went flat, and she turned around quickly. I turned and looked to see Edward looking at her with an inexplicable frustration on his face. Oh, so he was bothered with the no entry sign above her head.
I sighed, putting my head down on the cool marble. Fighting a fated – or not as fated as forced down our throat – romance was getting tiring.
"So, Edward, you didn't think Tulika should get a shot at the slides?" I looked up to see Mr. Banner peering down at our worksheet. I stared at him. Seriously, I mean my writing was very different from his, couldn't he tell we'd both done the lab?
"Actually she recognized three of the five sir; here is what she wrote down," Edward put a fingertip at the answers I'd written. Oh god, he'd picked up on that thought; I have to do a better job shielding my mind. I mean, if Bella could do it, I definitely could. I returned my head to the counter top.
"So, where are you from?"
I looked up to see Edward's attention back on me. "Vadodara in Gujarat...India," I said.
He nodded. "I've been there, I'd like to visit again," he murmured then smiled. "So, what's a girl who's lived with the sun doing here in the rain?" he asked. I opened my mouth to make a joking reply but stopped. The way he had asked the question had pertained intensity, like he really wanted to know. My sarcasm would not help me here.
"It's...complicated," I muttered before mentally smacking myself. Ok, in my defense I was not quoting the novel. How else was I supposed to tell him I had fallen asleep in my own bed and woken up with Bella in Phoenix? I certainly couldn't describe it as 'Oh you know, I got bored, decided with a little change of scenery," yeah...I didn't think so.
"I think I can keep up," he pressed.
Unlike Bella, I didn't look at him or get confused with his golden eyes. I didn't even comment on the change of eye color. It was more surprising he had not commented on my not commenting on it. Did he really think I didn't notice?
I settled with running a nail over the marble edge. "I'm sure you can," I said finally, keeping it short.
There was a heavy pause and I looked at him. He was looking at Bella but as if he could feel my eyes on him, he turned his head, smiling slightly. "I feel like I just annoyed you," he admitted.
"If anything, I should be annoyed at myself." I said. "Why is that?" he asked. I shrugged then smirked. "For someone who's as good a people reader as you are, you sure seem frustrated."
If he heard the implication in my tone, he didn't acknowledge it. He just returned the smile, "On the contrary, you are very...difficult to read." His eyes bore into me as if he was trying to put extra effort in my head and like a switch; my mind went completely blank, revealing nothing.
He made an unsatisfied noise but even as the bell rang I was out of my seat, rushing out faster than him and heading straight to gym. Nothing burns tension like a good game of...whatever we were supposed to play today.
"So, what was up with you and Edward?" Bella asked me.
"Nothing," I said, sliding on my uniform.
"He seemed fine today," she said.
"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged.
I turned away from Bella's prying and walked to the gym where Bella, Mike and I teamed for volleyball. Mike and I chivalrously covered her but her woolgathering didn't seem any less than most days. I was fine with it.
That is until, of course, she thwacked me soundly on the head with the ball.
"Ow," I groaned as I flopped down into the seat of the truck.
"I'm so sorry, if you want to go to the nurse," Bella began but I cut her off.
"Bella you hit me with a volleyball; thank god we're not doing tennis or baseball, I hate to wonder what you could do with those," I pretended to shudder and she giggled.
"Maybe I should just chuck the bat at you," she said.
"Isabella Swan; I'll have you know the Chief will not take your subtle threats towards his beloved little girl kindly. I mean me, not you," I added and she rolled her eyes, pulling out of the parking lot.
I placed my head on the cool glass and caught Edward leaning against the silver door of his Volvo. By the way, his shoulders were shaking; it wasn't difficult to tell that he was sniggering.
*Edward still sniggering* Well then...?
*I glare at him* Do it, Sullen, or else...
*Edward raises his hand* Ok, Ok... *Putting his hands to the keyboard* So, my beautiful lovely readers...did you like it? Do you wish to read more of me and this little girl's interactions?
Please comment if we should continue...