Just some fawning over Edward, what else is new? Also, remember to feel free to tell me whatever you'd like to see carried over from the old version. I'm open to suggestions.

Edward didn't come back to school for a week.

All his siblings were still there bright and early, standing beside the silver Volvo, but he was nowhere to be found. It was for the best that he wasn't around. My anger had returned the next day, and I'd been a bit too eager to glare him down at the lunch table. When I saw that his spot was empty, all that anger seemed to flush away and morph into disappointment. Bella and I had planned exactly what we were going to say to him about his behavior, and it was all for nothing.

As the days continued to pass, my anger eventually fizzled into nothing, and I was just left curious about his whereabouts. His family was still around, but he was gone for some reason. Even though Alice and Emmett had taken to smiling and waving at me when they saw me, I wasn't comfortable enough with them to ask about where their brother was. I was nowhere near bold enough to do something like that. Odds were, they probably wouldn't even tell me if I did ask. Edward must have told them about the hardcore glaring I'd been doing at his car.

Despite the negative first impression he'd left, I couldn't help but feel anxious whenever I thought of him. Was he alright wherever he was? Would he come back? Was he okay? The questions kept bouncing around my head and kept me up until the early hours in the morning. I'd been getting only three hours of sleep each night, yet I somehow woke up feeling as refreshed as ever… minus the frustration that came whenever I thought of his stupidly perfect face.

The weekend flew by quickly and Monday returned again which meant another week back at Forks High School.

Once we both parked and got out, people waved at us and we returned them with waves and smiles of our own. The attention had died down a bit, but not enough to be completely comfortable. I spotted Bella's-and I guess my-group of friends standing next to Tyler's van, and my smile felt a bit more genuine. They had their flaws, but they were a decent group of people to hang around with.

We hung around close to the building for a little bit before splitting up when the bell rang and we went to our morning classes. Whoever made my schedule and put math as the first class, I wanted to go up to them and give them a nice slap across the face. Finding the strength to focus on linear regression lines was nearly impossible. Mrs. King wasn't a bad teacher at all, but she'd been unlucky getting a student like me who detested anything to do with calculators or math in general.

English was a bit better. Over the week, I'd gotten more used to Emmett's presence and didn't tense up involuntarily whenever he shifted anymore. He was actually a pretty cool and funny guy. We'd taken to passing each other notes during class with jokes to see who could make the other laugh first. I was in the lead, 12-8. He was stepping up his game, getting more competitive with each snicker he let out. I was sure Mr. Moor was getting fed up with us, but he seemed too afraid of Emmett to say anything about it.

When the bell rang, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways to our classes. Nothing interesting really happened until the bell for lunch rang. Stepping outside, the air was full of swirling bits of white and the excited chatter of nearly all the student body. Though I didn't have a problem with the rain, it was nice to see a change for once. The only time I'd seen snow before was on t.v., so I took a moment to just stand there and soak in the feeling.

"Heads up, Swan!" That was all the warning I got before a compressed ball of snow was being hurled in my direction. Without thinking much of it, I swerved out of the way last minute and dodged it completely. I looked around for a bit and met the shocked eyes of Mike.

Narrowing my eyes playfully, I secured my bag on my back and bent down to gather a handful of mush in my hands. Surprisingly, it wasn't as cold as I thought it'd be. Seeing what I was planning to do, his eyes lit up and he began trying to duck around to throw off my aim. It was pointless, in the end. My snowball hit him smack between his brows and exploded into smaller chunks.

Eric and Tyler, who were nearby, cheered and congratulated me on my aim. Mike attempted to throw another snowball, but, yet again, I dodged before pelting him on the head with another snowball. Instead of waiting for him to get another one, I called for a ceasefire and shuffled towards the cafeteria as fast as I dared. The three of them met me in the line, and Mike's smile was bright despite the way he narrowed his eyes at me.

"This isn't over, Swan. I'm totally getting payback after lunch is over," he threatened, picking out a burger and soggy-looking fries. I stuck with my usual apple juice and a small carton of strawberry ice cream as a splurge. It had always been my favorite.

I smirked at him and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I'd love to see you miss again, Newton." Tyler and Eric held their hands up for high fives, and I slapped them happily.

Mike wagged a finger at me. "Very funny. Just you wait." When we all had our trays, we moved to the table that they had claimed as their own, and I sat next to Bella. As Mike began to plan an epic battle of the blizzard, Bella looked at me curiously, and Tyler and Eric took over the story with plenty of embellishments.

As they continued to tell the story, I took a glance around the cafeteria and froze when I spotted five people sitting at the Cullen table instead of the four that I had gotten used to. Edward was back. I wanted to get angry like I had been at the beginning of the week, but all I could feel was relieved that he was safe and nothing had happened to him while he was away.

They were all laughing, I noticed. It seemed like they'd also taken advantage of the snow to joke around, well, at least Edward, Emmett, and Jasper had. Emmett was shaking his wet hair towards Alice and Rosalie as they tried their best to block the drops from getting on their clothes. Edward and Jasper looked on with smiles on their faces. I focused more on Edward. His skin looked less pail and the bags under his eyes were less noticeable. Speaking of eyes, his were no longer the hateful black I remembered. Instead, they were the same honey-gold as the rest of his family. Odd.

"You're staring pretty hard at the Cullens," Mike pointed out. It was at that moment that Edward's eyes flickered up to my own. I couldn't find it in myself to keep his gaze and quickly looked away.

"Uh, yeah. I was just surprised to see them so lively today. They don't usually look so happy and carefree." That wasn't a complete lie either. Over the week that I had seen them, the only thing they did at lunch was stare in opposite directions and occasionally speak to their significant other. Not once had I seen them laugh like they were now.

Mike glanced at them, and it wasn't hard to see that he didn't care for them much. Nobody seemed to, really. "I guess you're right. Anyways, are you in?"

I correctly assumed he was talking about the snowball fight he'd been planning since we'd sat down. I bobbed my head while sticking a spoonful of ice cream into my mouth. "Yeah, totally," I said once it had melted, "it'll give me a chance to work on my aim."

Thankfully, the guys at the table distracted him, and I was free to continue enjoying my "lunch". I was halfway through the tub when Bella nudged me in the side. "I think Edward Cullen is staring over here." Her head was down, and she was using her hair as a shield to block him from view.

"You want me to check and see if he's glaring at you again?" I asked, sticking another spoonful into my mouth. It wasn't the best ice cream, but it was strawberry, so it was fine.

"No, don't look over there," she hissed.

"Too late~" I sang while turning in my chair and locking eyes with Edward once again. Bella groaned and let her head fall into her hands, and I let out an amused chuckle. "If it makes you feel any better, he's not staring at you. He's staring at me." For some reason unknown to me.

She looked at me from the corner of her eye, being careful not to look in his direction. "He's probably thinking about how you glared him down last week," she half-joked.

"You think he's scared I'll attack him with all my hundred-something pounds?"

She let out a laugh through her nose, sitting up straighter. "With those guns? Oh, yeah," she joked. We laughed at each other and talked for the remainder of lunch. I refrained from turning back to the Cullen table even when I could feel his eyes still boring a hole into my back.

I gave Bella a good luck pat on the back before following Mike outside to pelt him with more snowballs. To everyone's disappointment (besides Bella), it was raining and all remnants of snow were being washed down the pavement in icy ribbons. "You got lucky, Swan," Mike joked, and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Yeah, yeah. See you later." I waved at him and made my way to my next class. Rosalie and Emmett were already there when I entered. I waved at Emmett but made no other move to speak with him. I'd be lying if I said Rosalie didn't intimidate me.

That class passed quickly, and I was eager to get to the gym so Bella could update me on the Edward situation. Maybe that week away had been enough to get whatever stick he had up his ass taken care of. I changed into the gym uniform I'd been given and made my way over to where Bella stood on the court. We were playing racketball, it seemed.

"Alright, spill everything." She didn't seem as miserable as she had last week, so I assumed things had gone better.

Low and behold, I was right, and Bella recapped every word of the conversation they'd had. The fact that he'd actually talked to her eased my conscious enough, but his apology was the icing on the cake. Any anger or negative feelings I had towards him were squashed to absolute nothingness, and I was weirdly proud that he'd manned up and apologized to my sister.

"He wanted to apologize to you too, you know?" she revealed, stepping away from the ball that was headed in our direction. I swatted it away and looked at her with furrowed brows.

"Really? Why?"

She shrugged. "I guess he noticed how mad you were last week and wanted to apologize for coming off as rude." Huh… that was strange but thoughtful. The rest of gym continued with us talking about random things and me stopping Bella from being pelted at every corner. Any time I saw the ball coming anywhere near her, I'd step up and swat it away, saving the rest of the students from the tragedy that was Bella with any sports equipment.

As we got dressed again once the bell rang, Bella told me that she needed to speak with a teacher about an assignment that had begun when she wasn't in school and promised to meet up with me once she was done. Since it wasn't raining, I settled for waiting for her beside my car with my headphones in. No music was playing in them, but it served as a deterrent to people like Mike coming up and talking to me.

Despite this, however, one person still came over to me, and it was the last person I expected. "Hello." My eyes widened, and I took out my headphones to give him my full attention. "My name is-"

"Edward Cullen, I know," I interrupted. It was a bit rude, but I'd dealt with so many people giving me the scoop on his family that it was impossible not to know who he was.

He smiled, and I had to remember to take a breath. "You're Addison Swan, right?" I was sure he knew the answer to that, but I nodded anyway. "I just wanted to apologize for my behavior last week. I wasn't feeling well." Not feeling well is an understatement. He looked at Bella like she was the only one he had a bone to pick with.

"Must have been one rough day," I quipped, staring at him for any sign of lies. He was either telling the truth (which I doubted) or he was one hell of a liar because his face gave nothing away.

"It was. I'm sorry if I gave off a bad first impression. That wasn't my intention." Gosh, the more he spoke the harder it was to focus on anything besides his voice. It hit my ears as smooth as butter. I was sure he could read me the entire dictionary, and I wouldn't get bored.

I shrugged. "You did, but since you apologized to Bella, I guess all is forgiven." There was a lull in the conversation that quickly became awkward. I was tempted to put my headphones back in and pretend to be busy on my phone, but he suddenly spoke again.

"So, how are you liking Forks? I heard your sister doesn't care for it much, and I'm curious to get your perspective." He leaned closer to me, and I suddenly became aware of our proximity. He was close enough so I could smell him. I wasn't really sure how to describe it, but it was like every good thing put into one. I'd never been attracted to a person's smell before, but Edward was opening my eyes.

Realizing that he was still waiting for an answer, I quickly shook my head and pretended like there wasn't a part of my mind memorizing the exact shade of his hair. "Um… it's a big change from Phoenix, I'll tell you that. There's green everywhere, and it's rained more times here than it has there in months, and I've only been here a little over a week."

"So you don't enjoy it," he assumed. My mind was now cataloging the exact shade of gold in his eyes.

I shook my head. "I never said that. I love the sound of the rain; it helps me sleep. While I'd love to see a color other than green, it's not the worst color out there."

He smiled. "And what would the worst color be?"

"Orange," I replied without hesitation.

"What's your favorite color?" he asked. My eyes glanced over his shoulder, and I saw his family-along with a good chunk of the student body-looking at us intently. I could also see Bella coming out of the building from the corner of my eye and knew we should cut the conversation short.

"I'd tell you, but I'm sure your family will get upset if they have to wait any longer." He looked back quickly as if he'd forgotten that they were there, before turning back to me.

"You're right." Did he sound disappointed or was that my ears playing a trick on me? "I'll see you tomorrow, Addison." He walked backwards a few steps before turning and making his way to his family.

"Yeah, sure," I muttered, my mind still a bit cloudy from his presence. My eyes followed him to his car until Bella's voice snapped me out of it.

"What'd you two talk about?" I tore my eyes away from his butt to look at Bella's curious face.

It took me a moment to snap out of the Edward-induced haze, and I found my cheeks heating up slightly. "Uh, I'll tell you when we get home. It's getting cold out here, don't you think?" As if I'd hit a switch, Bella shivered and hurried into her truck. I followed suit and got into my own car, quickly turning up the heat even though I wasn't that cold.

It wasn't like I was trying to hide the conversation from her or anything. I was just worried that I'd go blushing and putting ideas in her head. I also wasn't sure why just talking with him had gotten me so flustered. Not even a week ago, I had hated the guy, now I was nearly reduced to a blushing little girl with her first crush. I needed at least a few minutes to calm down my racing thoughts before I spoke to her about Edward.

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I couldn't help but sneak a peek in his direction. He was sitting behind the steering wheel, and even through the tint of both our windows I could see his eyes trained solely on me. I looked away, as to not hit the car in front of me, and kept my eyes forward despite the strong urge to keep staring into his hypnotic eyes. What is Edward Cullen doing to me?