The blush still bright on Bella's cheeks, she put on a miserable expression and headed into the office. I followed her without thinking, which ended up working well; Bella said she was too ill to drive and that I'd volunteered to take her home, excusing both of us in one fell swoop.

We headed out to my car in silence. I was still trying to figure out the best way to talk to this girl. She, for her part, almost seemed to have forgotten me; she was walking quickly, her face set, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.

"You seem anxious," I said lightly after we'd both climbed into the car.

Bella hesitated, biting her lower lip as she twisted her hands together. "This is - weird," she said finally. "I'm still afraid something terrible is going to happen."

"I won't do anything you don't want me to," I said.

"It's not you I'm - never mind." She sighed. "What do we have, an hour and a half? What can we get done in that time?"

I accepted the change in topic. "What exactly is it that you need to do?"

We spent the rest of the ride, and the walk up to her front door, discussing her overdue homework. Her math assignments and a half-finished English paper were determined to be the most important items, so we'd work on those. "I suppose if I need more help with the rest we can meet again?" Bella asked shyly, turning her key in the lock.

"Of course," I said. She pushed open the door – the one that I'd last seen as it was closed in my face – and we entered her house together.

Bella headed straight through the front room, dumped her backpack on the kitchen table, and turned toward me, her eyes on the floor. "I'll be right back," she said. "I need to - change." She darted away from me and up the stairs.

Well. Okay then. I sat at the table intending to pull out my own homework, but found myself listening for Bella instead. She climbed the stairs rapidly, then turned down a hallway, closing a door. There was some shuffling, some soft thumps, and solid thud, and then silence.

I was just wondering if I should be concerned when her footsteps started up again, and a couple of minutes later she came back down the stairs, dressed now in a long, soft, thin sweater and a flowy ankle-length skirt. She sat down by me without so much as glancing at me and pulled out her homework.

Despite brimming with curiosity about the thuds I'd heard, I held my tongue and buckled down to the serious work of trying to get her through her math worksheets. The trick, as with biology, was finding a way to explain the concepts that made sense to her; once she grasped the idea she was easily able to complete the problems herself, and being able to talk together instead of write to each other sped up the process considerably. We finished two assignments within the hour and then switched to English.

This was significantly harder. Her paper, written in drafts in a notebook, was not easy to read, and while she seemed to have a decent understanding of what the paper was supposed to be about she kept making grammatical and style errors that seemed incredibly simple - she could speak better than this, so why was her writing so poor?

Finally, after working through the errors on the first couple of pages, I decided to ask what I'd been wondering the whole time. "Is English your first language?"

Bella blushed deeply, turning away with a jerk. "Y-yes."

"I ask because - "

"I know," Bella said harshly, cutting me off. She pushed her chair away from the table and stood in one quick movement. "I need to go outside, get some air."

"All right." I stood and followed her.

It was grayer and colder now than before, but be-skirted and barefoot Bella seemed to not care. She marched straight into the woods that edged her backyard, careless of the change of ground under her feet, and plopped herself down on a large-ish rock with her arms folded tightly across her chest. There was just enough room on the rock for me to sit beside her. I sat and waited, motionless, trying to not get distracted by the heat radiating from her or the fact that our hips were nearly touching.

"Sorry," Bella said after a few moments of silence. "I - I just..." she heaved a sigh. "Bad things usually happen when people start asking me that sort of question."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to upset you."

She glanced at me, a quick, nervous movement. "I know." She bit her lip for a moment. "If I tell you something, will you promise not to ask questions?"

"Of course."

"I only learned to read and write five years ago."

I struggled to keep my face smooth, in case she should look at me again. "That would explain your difficulties."

"Yeah."

I had promised not to ask questions, but questions were all I could think of. Why had she only learned five years ago? If she had been able to read and write for only such a short time, how was she able to be in high school?

What is she?

A cool breeze that tasted of rain brushed past our rock. Bella shuddered a little.

"Aren't you cold?" I asked.

"Not really."

I opened my mouth to point out the obvious lie, but Bella got in ahead of me. "Don't you need to go pick up your siblings soon?"

I sighed. Hang my siblings. "Yes, I suppose so."

"Then we should go back inside." Bella pushed herself off the rock and headed back to the house.

I obediently followed Bella back inside the house, feeling a distinct sense of whiplash. Bella was open one moment, closed the next, had sudden changes of mood, and I had none of her thoughts to help me prepare for any of it. I wasn't used to this.

Bella waited by the table while I picked up my backpack, fiddling with the hem of her sweater and biting her lip. Recognizing that she wanted to say something, I paused, my backpack slung over one shoulder. "Yes?"

She flushed. "I just had a question."

"Okay," I said patiently.

"Is there something I could do... to learn English better? To write better?"

"Practice, of course." Bella made a face, and I found myself chuckling. "Although actually, the best way to improve your writing is to read more."

"Really?"

I nodded.

She was biting her lip again. It was starting to look swollen; she'd frequently chewed on it while we were working on her homework. "Stop that," I said, reaching up without thinking and tapping her lip. "You're going to hurt yourself."

I of course knew by now that Bella was a blusher, but this was something else. I'd never seen someone turn such a crimson hue so fast. It extended from her hairline to the tips of her ears all the way down to the swooped neckline of her sweater. Her scent also intensified, but I barely noticed the automatic pooling of venom in my mouth; I was too busy cursing the block that kept me from her mind. What I wouldn't give to know what thoughts accompanied such a sudden and violent reaction!

Bella cleared her throat suddenly, putting her hands on her cheeks – as if that would hide her blush - and slightly turning away from me. "Did – did you –" her teeth touched her lip, but she quickly pulled them away again - "do you really want to keep helping me with my homework?"

"Yes." It was all the response I could manage. Her hesitant way of speaking mirrored my own scattered thoughts.

I watched in fascination as she moved her hands nervously to her neck. Her skin must be so very warm right now. It would burn so deliciously were I to touch her again, perhaps for longer this time...

"Um." One of her hands slid down her neck, her fingers tangling in the neckline of her sweater. "Could you help me, then? Help me read. I get so... frustrated when I try by myself."

"I'd be happy to." Understatement. In this moment, I felt I'd do a lot of desperate things to ensure I got to be close to her.

"After school, then? We could start tomorrow. As many days as you can spare. Ch-Charlie doesn't get home until evening." Her blush was fading from her extremities, but her cheeks were still bright.

"I can be here every day, if you need me." A sudden thought made me pause. "Oh. But not until Monday. I'll be... out of town."

Her face fell for a moment, but then it seemed a thought struck her. "Is it going to be sunny this weekend?"

I smiled at her quickness. "Yes, starting tomorrow morning."

"Where are you going?"

"Goat Rocks Wilderness." I didn't add that the location was for Emmett, who was excited for bear season. I didn't need to give her that image.

"Oh."

We stood a while, her staring at the floor with pink cheeks, me staring at her, feeling some kind of... hunger, wanting, that I hadn't really known before. My fingers twitched. I curled my hand into a fist. "I should go," I said, hoping my voice didn't sound as reluctant as I felt.

"Yeah." Bella licked her lips, her hands twisting together on her chest. "Th-thank you again."

"You're welcome." I forced myself to turn and leave.

A/N: *peeks head around corner* H-hey guys. Sorry about that hiatus. School started and took me entirely by surprise, and then this chapter gave me a lot of trouble. It's still not as smooth as I'd like, but at this point I needed to just get it published and move on. Hopefully from here on out I'll be back to updating every week-ish. We're getting to some good parts. : ) Thanks for reading!