I rolled down all the windows in my car and sat back in the driver's seat, taking deep breaths of the cold, wet air and willing it to wash away the memory of Isabella's scent. After only a few minutes, I was interrupted. Hey Eddie.

"Hey," I replied, allowing a hint of sarcasm into my voice. "You've been very helpful today."

Alice shrugged. I got a handful of split-second visions of you attacking someone, but they all cut off so quickly I couldn't even tell who it was you were attacking. You seemed to have it under control.

"Barely."

Who was it, anyway?

Her scent came flooding back to my memory. I buried my face in my hands. "The new girl. Isabella. She passed through the heater when I wasn't prepared, and she sits next to me in biology."

Did she notice?

Did she notice? The question was laughable. Oh, she'd noticed. If my intuition was right, she knew. But I couldn't admit that to Alice, not yet. It had been hard enough to admit I'd nearly lost control. "I was a little distracted, Alice."

Then you'd better use your time out here to make sure.

"I know."

We'll all hunt tonight, Alice thought. She was recalling Jasper now, the one she'd been most focused on today. She looked toward the school buildings.

"Go take care of him. I'll just... stay out here. I promise. Please don't tell anyone."

Alice hesitated, but nodded and left.

I felt a slight pang at knowing a moment was all she had to spare for me. But Jasper was her mate, and more dangerous than I ever was. I turned my mind to the task at hand.

I knew Isabella had noticed. It was possible others in the class had as well. And even if they hadn't, she might think to mention it to one of them. I pushed my mind out, searching for those who had been in biology, and for anyone close to Isabella.

This had the added benefit of making the time pass more quickly. It could take several minutes to find a mind at this distance, and once found I had to listen for a few more minutes to make sure the person wasn't thinking of me or my family. About half the remaining class time passed before I found a mind I settled in for good, and not just because he was thinking of me. Mike also had a first-person view of Isabella.

They had gym class together. Mike was more interested in watching Bella than his game; his performance had suffered, but he didn't care. As I watched, his game ended, and he headed over to Isabella, prepping himself to try to ask her about me.

"Hey Bella," he said, hoping he came off cool and casual.

Bella? I realized, belatedly, that everyone else had been calling her that, in person and in their minds. Must be a nickname.

"Hi," Isabella - Bella - said.

"So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or something? I've never seen him look so pissed."

Watching Bella's face in his mind I could see her eyes widen slightly, but Mike himself didn't seem to catch onto that. "Was that the person I sat next to in biology?"

"Yeah. Did you see how he was looking at you?" Mike felt uneasy remembering it himself. He'd caught the malice and the danger, even if his mind didn't allow him to fully realize it.

She shrugged. "I wasn't really paying attention to him."

Every action I'd seen - her glances, her hesitance to sit next to me, her huddling by the edge of the table - pointed to her being overly aware of me. However, the blatant lie completely escaped Mike, who was merely pleased I hadn't "charmed" her, whatever he meant by that. "Nothing there to catch your interest, then?"

"I was just trying to take notes," Bella said, sounding a little confused. "I missed the first day of the unit."

"I can help you study," Mike said, the eagerness in his mind and spilling out in his voice only slightly marred by the chagrined realization that he hadn't exactly been paying attention in class so far.

Bella looked down. "Thanks. I'll let you know if I need help."

Coach Clapp called for an end to the break and Mike headed back to the game. I stayed in his mind as he took his place on the floor, and he kept an eye on Bella. He felt a thrill whenever she looked up and caught his eye, though he kept wishing she'd smile more - or at all - when he smiled at her. His petty teenager emotions were annoying to me, but I stayed put. It's for the good of the family, I told myself. He'd noticed my behavior and mentioned it to another. I needed to keep an eye on his mind for now.

Not a single passing thought of me or my family crossed Mike's mind throughout the rest of class. However, lots of thoughts about Bella did. When Coach Clapp called an end to class, he jogged over to Bella again instead of heading to the locker rooms.

"So, your first day of class, all over huh? How was it?"

There was a pause before Bella answered. "Fine. Good." Another pause. "I think... maybe this weather isn't agreeing with me though. I might be coming down with something."

Aw man, I guess I can't ask her out tonight then. "I could walk you to your car if you're not feeling well."

Bella quickly shook her head. "No, I still have to go to the office to turn in my notes from the teachers." She stood, slinging her backpack onto her back, looking past him rather than at him. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," Mike said, disappointed but still determined. He began daydreaming about their eventual date as he ran toward the locker rooms. I pulled out of his mind in disgust.

Gym class always ended a few minutes early to give everyone time to change. I still had time before my siblings showed up. My mind meandered over to the office, where I could see Bella entering through the eyes of the school's head secretary, Mrs. Cope.

"Did you have a good first day?" Mrs. Cope asked, smiling kindly at Bella as she handed over her signed papers. She looks tired.

Bella did look tired, but she tried to smile as she answered. "Mostly. But I was wondering if there's another biology class I could switch to? I'm worried having it right after lunch will upset my stomach, with some of the units we'll be doing."

Mrs. Cope checked some things on the computer, then shook her head. "Sorry, dear, that was the only class with an opening that would fit the rest of your schedule. We had a tight fit, making sure you had all the classes you needed to be on track to graduate. You can let Mr. Banner know you're squeamish, though, and he'll let you out of class whenever you feel ill." Oh dear, she looks ill now.

Bella nodded slowly. "Thank you," she said quietly, and turned to leave.

"Edward!"

My name brought me back abruptly. While I was concentrating Alice had climbed into the passenger seat beside me. "What?" I snapped back.

She raised an eyebrow and pulled a recent vision forward in her mind – me, in biology class, with an empty chair beside me. What's this?

"I didn't -" I hurried to defend myself, then realized: no, I didn't make a decision. Bella did. Which was strange in itself; Alice usually didn't have unprompted visions of humans she didn't know well. Perhaps it was because she'd likely made the decision because of me?

Alice was watching me narrowly; my face had changed rapidly as the realization had struck me. "I didn't make a decision," I said, finally finishing the sentence I'd started. "But I think Bella is going to be too ill to come to school tomorrow."

Bella?

"The nickname she – Isabella, the new girl – goes by."

Now Alice was amused. I wasn't sure why. I see. And why do you think she'll be ill?

I smiled faintly. "She set it up. She's already mentioned to Mike that she isn't feeling well, and now Mrs. Cope thinks she's ill as well."

I take it your last hour was successful, then.

"Yes, we're in no danger from her."

"From who?" Emmett asked, opening the back door. I quickly turned on the car and rolled up the windows, cursing my negligence. "Who's danger?"

"No one is danger," I said in a level voice, watching in the rear view mirror as Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper all climbed in. "Alice and I were discussing the new girl."

Oh, the one you have a crush on? Have you been spying on her?

I glared at Emmett in the mirror. He merely grinned. I rolled my eyes and pulled out of the parking space.

Hunting that night was uneventful. By morning, a sated Jasper was again calm and prepared to spend several hours cooped up with warm human bodies. I was glad; secretly, I was more than a little nervous for the coming day.

Only Alice knew of my momentary lapse the day before, and I was hoping it would stay between us. Not having Jasper to echo my own thirst would be a big help toward keeping it secret. No matter how much I told myself that her scent being so powerful was a fluke, poor luck heaped on top of coincidence, I was still worried.

It ended up being unnecessary. True to my prediction to Alice, Bella was not at school the next day. By lunch a smug Mike had spread the word to anyone who cared: she was too sick to come to school today, and he was the one she'd told about it. I had to be impressed at how smoothly it was done. Bella had dropped just the right information to just the right person to ensure that her absence was unremarkable. And, true to Alice's own vision, I sat next to an empty chair in biology.

What did surprise me was that Thursday wasn't an isolated event; Friday found the school again Bella-less. The empty chair beside me seemed somewhat accusatory. Could it really be my fault that she was gone? Was I to blame for that fact that, out of the first three weeks of the semester, she'd attended only a single day?

I turned the mystery of Bella over and over in my head all weekend long. Normally I dreaded Monday, the return to monotony and the need to appear human, but this weekend I was impatient. School was the only place I could see Bella, the only place where these questions could be answered. Until then, I was in torment.

Eventually, the questions (and the increasingly loud thoughts along the lines of "Edward's in one of his stupid funks again" from more than one mind in the house) drove me out. It was Sunday night, only a few more hours to kill before I could go to school again, and spending the time running through the forest wasn't too bad a way to pass the time. I wandered aimlessly, enjoying the fact that I could simply exist without needing to stop and hunt.

Eventually I had to head back - I needed to shower and change, and it was starting to snow - and decided to do so in a big sweeping curve that brought me closer to town. Even when we stayed close to home to hunt we always went 15-20 miles out to avoid running across a human by accident, but without being in the hunting mindset there was little danger. And anyway, no one would be out here in the early hours of the morning in January.

Or so logic dictated. What actually happened is that I came across an unusual but instantly recognizable scent that couldn't be more than an hour old – if that. I had been steeling myself against running into her at school, but out here in the woods Bella's scent caught me completely by surprise. Instinct took over.

I had trotted a quick mile or two, too focused on the trail and on ignoring the more sane part of my mind to notice anything else, when I suddenly became aware of quick footsteps following me. I turned with a snarl but was tackled to the ground before I could do anything else.

"What, Alice?" I growled.

I think you're the one who needs to answer questions. Alice's mind replayed the vision that had sent her out here after me: my head whipping up as I'd caught Bella's scent, my eyes narrowing and darkening, my quick jog as I began tracking.

Faced with Alice's glare and my own face, the monster in me deflated, replaced quickly by shame. Twice now, in the same week, I'd nearly slipped. "I wasn't going to do anything," I said.

Alice saw through the lie, as I knew she would, but let it pass. Let's get back home. She bounced up from my chest where she'd perched during this exchange. Her feet had barely touched ground when she caught the scent herself. Her eyes widened. That's what you were following?

"Now imagine it blown directly at you by a heater." It didn't tempt her nearly as much as it did me, but I still felt a little justified.

You mean this is her scent? Bella's? Alice looked down the trail, toward the town, as I climbed to my feet and brushed snow off my clothes. I've never smelled anything like it.

"Neither have I."

Alice turned back to me with a wry smile and took my hand, tugging me back in the direction of home - for her own benefit as much as for mine. Bella's scent had made her thirsty too. I wonder what illness night hiking is supposed to cure.

That little adventure only made me more eager to get to school, so much so that I could barely conceal my impatience as the others got ready. However, all my anxiety was rewarded; diligent searching during the first hour let me know that Bella had returned to school today.

A small part of me was still worried - I had, after all, tried to track her just the night before - but I felt prepared now. Even when I'd been taken by surprise I'd easily been distracted by Alice. And even that first day Alice's visions had all quickly cut off. Surely I would be able to handle myself. So it was that lunch time found me watching the door out of the corner of my eye, waiting for Bella to arrive.

She came in with Jessica, looking pale and nervous. They parted; Jessica to the lunch line, Bella to weave between the tables. She was headed right for me, I realized with a start, but a quick glance around showed that she likely heading toward where Mike was waving at her, a few tables away from us. Still, her path through the room took her directly past us.

Jasper shuddered as she passed. I immediately scanned his mind, but it was his power, not his thirst, that had been triggered. He'd caught anxiety pouring off her in waves. What's wrong with the new girl? he thought to me, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

I shrugged. I'd listened as she passed, but her mind was as closed to me as ever.

Emmett, who had not gotten his fill of snowball fights that morning (does Emmett ever get his fill of anything competitive?), chose this moment to make a move. He'd made a snowball on the way to the cafeteria, kept cold and hard in his hand all this time. He knew that Alice and I knew what he was doing, and that Rosalie would kill him if he dared throw it at her, which left him with Jasper. It hit him square in the chest.

"That's for not giving me a rematch on Wednesday," Emmett said, grinning as Jasper brushed snow off his clothes.

"I knew you'd do that," Alice said.

"Well of course you did, little - " Emmett halted as a small ball of slush splattered into his face. "Not fair!"

Alice giggled, patting Jasper's shoulder, leaving a wet mark from the melted snow on her hand. "Don't worry, I got him for you."

"You could have prevented him in the first place," Jasper grumbled, as we all laughed.

Crisis averted, Alice thought to me. She pulled up a previous vision, sans mini snowball fight, which had Jasper get distracted by more than Bella's anxiety. The smile dropped from my face and I looked away.

I'm going to have to tell him about her, if only to make sure he's on his guard, Alice thought. She smells good, even to me.

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Little as I liked the idea of letting anyone else know of my near mistakes, she had a point; it was unfair and unwise to let Jasper go unprepared in the face of an extra-good smelling human. Suddenly I wasn't prepared to sit in this room full of humans and pretend to eat for another 20 minutes. I got up, dumped my tray, and headed early to biology.

The bell was only a minute or two from ringing when the now-familiar scent curled around me. I'd been preparing for this moment since I sat down. I held still as Bella dropped her backpack, sat, and pulled out her notebook, checking my resolve. She smelled good, but I was in control.

"Hi."

I looked up, surprised. Bella was looking down at her hands clasped on her notebook. "I'm Isabella Swan, Bella for short."

"I'm Edward," I said, my voice low and smooth to hide my astonishment. I'd never dreamed she'd talk to me first.

"I apologize for not introducing myself on Wednesday. I wasn't feeling well." Her hands clenched somewhat tighter together, their tension completely at odds with her tone of voice. It was casual, easy, as if... perhaps as if she was reciting lines she'd practiced before. Hmm.

Further speculation on my part was cut short by the bell.

Bella started slightly at the sound, picked up her pen, huddled to the edge of the desk again, and prepared to take notes.

But there wasn't much to write. After a brief recap of the past three days of lecture, Mr. Banner set us free to work on a partner project. Watching out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bella stare in horror from her mostly-empty note page to the equipment set up on our desk.

I reached for the microscope between us. She flinched away. "I don't know how to do it," she whispered. Her voice was pitched so low I wasn't sure a human would have been able to hear it.

Normally I would have just done the project myself at this point. I had little patience for most humans, especially teenaged ones, and would be glad to get the assignment over with. But without her mind to read all I had to go off of was her downcast face, the tension in her body, and my memory of how far behind she'd been the one day I'd seen her in class. "It's not that hard," I said. "Here." I reached for her notebook.

She pulled away from me, sharply, as if on instinct. I paused, then tried again, asking for permission this time. "May I write some notes for you?"

She hesitated a moment. Then, without looking my way, she dropped the pen on top of the paper and slid it toward me, pulling her hand back quickly.

Keeping my writing speed to just below too fast for a human, I quickly sketched the phases of mitosis we were supposed to be looking for, clearly labeling important sections. I finished, slid the notebook back her way, and waited.

She pulled it back to herself and read it over, tapping her pencil on each section as she read it. She finished in a couple of minutes but didn't look up.

"Would you like me to start?" I asked, surprising myself by how gentle my voice was and the genuine patience that was behind it. If only Emmett could see me now, he'd laugh for the next century about me losing my scariness.

She nodded.

I slid in the first slide, looked in long enough to seem normal, and named the phase. "Now you check it," I said, sliding the microscope toward her.

Bella waited until I had pulled my hand back to reach out herself and take it. She looked inside for about as long as I had. "Yeah, okay," she mumbled.

I pulled our worksheet toward me and wrote the phase. "How about you do the next one?"

Bella slowly switched the slides, with a little fumbling. This time she took much longer, looking between my notes and the microscope several times while chewing her lower lip. Finally, she hesitantly named a phase.

I pulled the microscope toward myself and checked it briefly. "Correct. How about you identify them, and I'll write them?"

Though still obviously nervous, Bella nodded. She pulled the microscope closer and switched the slides, naming the phase more quickly than before.

We continued, gathering speed. Process of elimination certainly helped, but Bella also seemed to be getting the hang of the whole thing. Despite our slow start, we were one of the first groups done.

After Mr. Banner checked off our sheet (and I reassured him that we'd worked together, not that I'd done the lab by myself) we sat in silence at our table for a while. Bella was sitting much as she had at the beginning of class, her hands folded on her notebook while she stared down at the desk. After a few moments, she spoke, again so quietly I wasn't sure a human would have heard her. "Did I miss much else while I was ill?"

"Not really," I said, wondering if I'd imagined a slight pause before 'ill.' "Those notes I gave you have most of the vocabulary words and all the basic concepts. You might want to re-read the chapter too if you have time."

"Thanks."

We sat in silence for a while. I half expected Bella to pull away from me again - she'd moved more toward the center of the table as we'd worked - but when she didn't I decided to try some conversation. Gently. On a non-controversial subject I knew several of her peers were thinking about. "It's too bad about the snow." It had turned to cold rain over the lunch hour, and almost every student in the class had come in with their minds grumbling about it.

"Yeah," Bella said quietly.

And then nothing. I spoke again. "Did you get much snow in Arizona?"

"No." Bella's hands clenched tighter a moment, then relaxed. "This was the first time I'd seen snow."

That was more like it. I tried to keep my voice casual. "Coming up here must have been quite the change. What was the weather like in Arizona?"

"Dry. And hot. Too hot. Suffocating." Each word got more impassioned, with extra emphasis on 'suffocating.' Bella took a moment before she spoke again, and her next words were again smooth and recited. "I'm enjoying the cooler weather here."

"How do you like living with Chief Swan?"

"It's nice," Bella replied. "It's quiet, and private, and just comfortable."

And then a miracle happened. A small but genuine smile blossomed on Bella's face. I watched, fascinated, as she continued unprompted. "Where I lived in Arizona I had my own room, but small, and a shared bathroom, and it seemed like there were always other people around. Here the whole house is just for the two of us, with the forest just outside the back door. It's so... freeing." As if suddenly ashamed of her words, or how much she'd been talking, Bella bit her lip and looked away.

I had to look away as well, again gripping the table leg as I had last Wednesday. Her nervous gesture had been accompanied by a blush and a slight swinging of her hair, and the rising color and increase of her scent had reminded me of how good she smelled, something I'd managed to ignore for most of class.

Mr. Banner called the class back to attention not long after our brief conversation ended. It was all right with me; I had my thirst to control and more than enough to think over. It seemed that Bella was calling a truce: we can both pretend that neither of us is abnormal in any way, and in that way leave each other alone. But I also wasn't sure that was what she really wanted. She had certainly tried to frame our interactions in a calm, dispassionate way, even speaking as if she were smoothly reciting memorized lines, but as I'd continued to ask her questions she'd... gone off script, I decided to call it. Calling Arizona suffocating, and and here freeing... those had been genuine. That was Bella.

I had no time to try to talk to her after class, for she left nearly as quickly as she had last Wednesday and without even a backward glance at me. But that was all right. There was a tiny crack in her defenses. I could work with that. For now, I'd give her space.

Emmett and I shared our last class, and he met me outside the Spanish classroom with raised eyebrows. Stop smiling. It looks weird on you.

"Bite me," I muttered, letting the smile drop.

Seriously though, what happened? This morning I thought you were going to punch someone, and now you're all... He struggled to find an appropriate word, then gave up. I'd assume you got laid, but -

I lightly hit his arm before he could think more derogatory things about me and my mood. "There. I punched someone."

Which is also unlike you.

I rolled my eyes and headed to my seat. To block Emmett's continued speculation as to what could have caused my change in mood, I opened my mind and searched for Mike's. I was curious to see how Bella would react after today's class.

The class was still playing volleyball, as they had been last Wednesday when I'd checked on Bella. She was playing on Mike's team and not doing well. I watched through Mike's mind as she cringed away from the ball several times, tripped while running to try to hit it after being encouraged by Mike, and completely flubbed two serves in a row before hitting a good one.

It was easy to see why she was having such trouble. Her movements were hesitant and uncoordinated, her body tense, her gestures nervous. Sports were obviously not her forte at all.

And yet hiking was, I mused. How was she so well suited for walking miles from the nearest path in the middle of the night, yet couldn't hit a volleyball?

Alice and Jasper met me and Emmett at the car. Jasper stared sternly at me. "I think you should tell the others."

"Tell us what?" Emmett asked.

I sighed. "Thanks, Alice."

She shrugged. "I had to warn him."

"Warn him of what?" Emmett asked, growing impatient.

"Get in the car." That bought me a little time, at least. Rosalie was approaching and I had to think of a way to phrase this that both wouldn't trigger her power and wouldn't convince her to turn her power on Bella. I wasn't yet prepared to admit that I couldn't read Bella's mind.

I reluctantly spoke as I pulled out of the parking lot. "I sit next to Isabella, the new girl, in biology," I said. "Last Wednesday there was a little bit of an incident. She smells better than a normal human, and I first found that out with the help of a heater blowing right in my face."

Emmett chuckled, but not without sympathy.

"You didn't do anything to her, did you?" Rosalie asked, immediately wary.

"Of course not," I said quickly. "But all of you should be on your guard if you're ever in close contact with her."

"Like we were today," Jasper said. "I can't believe you didn't tell us earlier."

"Forget telling us she smells good! Edward, did she notice? What did she think? You can't have had a reaction without her noticing!" Rosalie was... not pleased, to say the least.

"Calm down," I said. Now came the really tricky part. "She noticed, but dismissed it. Someone else even asked her about me and she brushed him off." All true, just not at all the whole story.

Rosalie didn't find anything suspicious in what I said, but she wasn't appeased. "And then she was out of school for two days. Who knows what happened then? What if she told her uncle?"

I scowled at the road ahead of me. "I think we would have heard by now if she did. I listened today and no one was thinking anything out of the ordinary." Technically true. I just didn't know what Bella was thinking.

Rosalie settled back in her seat. "Fine. But you're going to keep a close eye on her, and if you slip up again - "

"Rosalie, please, she just caught me by surprise that day. I'm fine."

We drove the rest of the way in silence. I listened hard, skipping from mind to mind, but no one stopped to wonder why Bella smelled different, and no one had any more questions for me. For now, Bella was safe. Well, from everyone but me, I thought wryly.