"Well then I hope you enjoy disappointment," he stared me down. I turned my head away.

"Why did you even bother?" I sighed, moving away without waiting for his reply. I found Charlie, and half the school in the waiting room. I reassured everyone and made Charlie take me home. I wondered about my truck. It was probably still sitting in the car lot at school. Looks like I'd be walking in tomorrow.

When I got in the cruiser with Charlie I honestly considered leaving again and walking home. It had been a seriously stressful day already, and I wasn't sure I could handle another car ride. But at the same time I was mad. Mad enough I wanted to get home to sleep. Think and sleep. Super-human speed and strength were not on my general list of acceptable things, and yet apparently I had just accepted them. Without them I wouldn't be alive, but it was making my head spin, thinking about it all. I stared moodily out of the window on the way home, watching the snow and ice slowly melt, as I tried to control my nerves about being in a car. Charlie waved a hand in my peripheral vision to grab my attention. I looked over and he looked sheepishly back.

"You're going to have to call Renee," he blushed.

"You told mom?" I asked. I could feel my voice had risen with a mix of annoyance and hysteria. He signed 'texting' and I rolled my eyes in exasperation. "You texted her? Jeez Dad, she probably thinks I'm dead. I bet she's freaking."

When we got home I went straight upstairs, and sat on my bed. I video-called my mom so that she could see I was fine, and that so I could ask her to sign anything I missed vocally. Most of it I didn't need confirmation on, as she was repeating variations of the same questions: What happened? How was I? Was I sure? It took me nearly 30 minutes to calm her down fully, and then I had a worse headache than before. As the adrenaline crash from the events of the day hit me, my ears throbbed, and my head felt like I'd gone a few rounds as Rocky's chew toy. I doubted I'd be able to eat anything, so I yelled down at Charlie that I was taking an early night. I didn't hear any response, so I assumed that meant he quietly acknowledged it, or that he had loudly acknowledged it, and I couldn't hear him. I sighed again. I was not in the mood for this. I went to the bathroom, took a few advil, and headed back to my bedroom. I had just enough energy left that I pulled off my t-shirt and jeans, and flopped into my bed to sleep.

That was the second night I dreamed of Edward Cullen.

I was in a car. Lights were flashing past me. Not streetlights, headlights. On a busy highway. I could hardly see out of my window. I turned my head to look at the driver, and I was surprised. Instead of the usual girl from my school, Edward was driving, and his skin was shimmering with light. He looked at me, and I looked at the speedometer. We were going fast. Far, far too fast. As I looked back at Edward I noticed he was still looking at me, with that confused and frustrated expression from class earlier. Suddenly the car jerked sideways, and my hair lifted in front of my face as if pulled up by strings. It fell to the right slightly, then left, then down to my chin again, as the lights outside danced in circles. My eyes focused back onto the golden ones. He began to move, unnaturally fast, towards me, protectively. His eyes never left mine as we spun helplessly – me cradled in his arms - and suddenly there was a bone shattering snap in my leg.

Waking up that morning was cold – I really ought to have bothered with pyjamas – and I was shaking. I'd had that dream a thousand times, and it had never changed. Now it seemed to be evolving with every interaction I had with Edward Cullen. Oh yeah – I needed psych help.

In the morning I was surprised to see Charlie home when I woke up.

"Why are you home?" I asked and signed.

"You need a drive in?" He asked back, signing 'driving'. He really had been practicing. I smiled and grabbed some cereal.

"Actually I was going to walk in. I need the exercise, the de-stresser, and plus, I need to work on my walking skills."

We both laughed together and he ruffled my hair as he left for work. I slipped some workout clothes on, grabbed my sneakers and normal clothes, and stuffed them into my bag. I felt like running. I ran to school, the 3 miles that it was, and made it about 15 minutes before most people had arrived. I dashed into the gym change rooms to shower with the one shower we had, and got changed for the rest of my day. I could guarantee that I wouldn't have to participate in gym since Coach Clapp would assume my head was still sore from yesterday. He was kind of nice, for a gym coach. As I made my way to my first class I collected two hugs, three 'how are you's, and fifteen worried glances. I also saw a shiny silver Volvo pull into the parking lot, and determinedly didn't look at it. Instead I focused ardently on Mike's conversation as he described the events of yesterday from his point of view, and talked about Tyler. It wasn't until I got to Angela, who hugged me fiercely, that I truly forgot about the Cullens. She handed me all of the notes I missed from yesterday, and assured me that if I needed anything from her, she was here. She also asked if we wanted to skip our hang out that night, and I declined. I'd like to spend the time not doing something, and not watching Charlie worry about me. The whole day was embarrassing. I must've re-told the same story a thousand times.

"No I wasn't really hurt. I just whacked my head off the ground when Edward Cullen tackled me out of the way. My truck stopped the van just before it got to us. I'm the luckiest unlucky person I know." I could tell my hearing was a little worse today, as some of the easiest to hear people started to mouth words. I wondered if they were speaking in lower tones because they were worried about startling me, or if my hearing had gotten that bad. I tried not to dwell on it, and just confusedly follow as much conversation as I could. The only positive thing that came out of that day was the re-affirmation that nobody had noticed Edward Cullen beside me. I was totally not crazy.

After school, and dinner, I went to Angela's. We walked a little, and I taught her some more basic signs as we discussed classes. And a dance that was upcoming. It was a girl's choice dance, and she had someone she wanted to ask, but was scared to. In the same way that she never pushed me for details, I never pushed her either. I asked gentle confirmation questions, to understand as much as possible, and gave the best advice I could. She asked how my head was and I shrugged.

"It's fine. Totally normal."

L-I-A-R. She signed back. I chuckled at her and showed her how to sign it. It was a two-parter, and we practiced a little until she had it perfectly.

"Its tender to touch, and I zoinked out a lot today," I admitted.

"Zoinked?" she laughed. I shrugged again, laughing with her.

…

The following day, Tyler was back at school. And it felt like my first day here all over again. He wouldn't leave me alone, kept promising to make amends, and almost elbowed Mike out of the way at one point to talk to me. I tried to reassure him that he didn't need to feel bad, it wasn't his fault, and I wasn't hurt, but nothing I said dissuaded him.

Aside from my rise back to fame in Forks, the whole month was very normal, school wise anyway. Edward Cullen was anything but. The first day back in biology class he'd nodded in my direction when I addressed him, and other than that had said nothing. There was no partner work needed in that month, but if there had been, I could have almost guaranteed it would not have pushed his word count over 10. Mike, Eric, and Jessica were as friendly and talkative as ever that month, almost as if they were trying their extra hardest to negate Edward's silence, and now I had Tyler, and a girl who obviously liked him – Lauren – to worry about listening to as well. Angela was a huge help in that department. I tried to focus my energy on understanding as much of my friends' speech as possible, especially since it kept my mind off of Edward, but more often than not, the amount of concentration left me irritable and tired by the end of the day.

Once I was particularly irritable by biology, and I began to notice things about Edward that I had been so determined to ignore before. He was leaning as far away from me as he could, his fists curled tight into balls, and looking straight forward. But he'd only adopted that pose when I sat down. I opened my mouth to sass him, and shut it again. I felt a click in my teeth and Edward's gaze flickered for a second. It was my turn to stare forward and be irate. He was so full of this rage towards me, that I could only place as regret. He regretted the fact that he'd shown me some supernaturally freaky shit, and regretted the fact that he'd saved my life even more. He'd hated me from day one, so how awful it must be to have me be the carrier of his secret. Ugh. I hated the fact that I felt I understood him, and I mentally sighed at the fact that I was devoting so much effort into deciphering Edward Cullen. I still was grateful. I was alive after all. And it was because of him. I'd have to repay that somehow someday.

The weeks passed.