Rain beats on the roof as Eric walks Bella into class. She brushes water off her coat as he chats her up.
"Yeah, prom committee is a chick thing, but I gotta cover it for the paper anyway, and they need a guy to help choose the music - - So I need your play list." Bella is about to respond when Mike comes up behind her.
"Come on, Arizona. Give it up for the rain." He shakes his wet baseball cap onto Bella's head.
"Terrific." She heads toward her seat, brushing off her hair. But she freezes when she sees Edward. Bella straightens, girding herself. Then strides to the table, and confidently drops her books down, ready to address him. But he looks up at her.
"Hello." Bella stops. Stunned. He is direct, precise, as if every word is an effort for him. "I wanted to say thank you for standing up for my brother and introduce myself. I'm Edward Cullen."
Feeling like an idiot, she quickly sits. "It was no problem my name is Bella... um he told me had a family emergency, is everything ok?"
"Yes it's all right now." He quickly shifts to the very edge of the desk away from her, but smiles at her.
"Onion root tip cells! That's what's on your slides. Separate and label them into the phases of mitosis. The first partners to get it right, win... the golden onion!" Mr. Molina tells the class as he excitedly holds up a spray painted onion. Everyone just looks at him. He's disappointed by their apathy. "Come on, people. Tick tock."
Edward turns to face Bella again pushing the microscope towards her, "I think Noah would really like that onion."
Shivering, Bella heads for her truck carefully navigating the icy puddles. As she reaches her truck, she looks across the lot she sees Edward standing by his silver Volvo with his siblings. Noah is smiling with the golden onion in his hand until his face slowly changes to shock as he says something. Edward looks toward the sound of a high pitched screech, that quickly grows louder.
Bella turns to see a van skidding on the ice, careening out of control, heading directly for her. Time suddenly fractures, compressing to stillness, then exploding in bursts of speed as the van is about to hit Bella's truck, with her standing in between, when suddenly, something knocks Bella down, pinning her to the ground.
She looks up and Edward is on top of her. The world around them freezes in this fraction of a second, their proximity is overwhelming, electrifying. He breathes in her scent, she takes in his flawless face.