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I tried not to be overly excited as we walked together slowly away from the cafeteria, headed to our next class. He'd touched my chin in such a gentle way, a caring way. I definitely felt like I'd been dropped into a novel of some kind. A gentle caress was not something teenage boys of this day and age did. When we walked into the science building I felt my stomach rumble, and suddenly Edward grabbed my arm. I looked up, worried, to his concerned face.

"You haven't eaten?" he asked. I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Eidetic memory huh? You were awake this lunch period, weren't you?" We had walked straight from class to the outdoors for our private discussion. He quickly looked over his shoulder and suddenly someone was in front of me. His sibling, the tiny one, who always looked like she was dancing; Alice. Her short spiky hair stood out at odd angles from her head, and her grin had the enthusiasm to match it.

"Bella. It's nice to meet you. I'm Alice," she shot Edward an almost condescending glare and then handed me a granola bar. "I grabbed you a chocolate chip one because it seems to be a student favourite."

I blinked a couple of times before taking the bar from her. "Thank you, I –" I wasn't even sure what I was about to say, but she cut me off with a wink.

"Don't worry about it. I'll see you soon." And with another meaningful look at the now annoyed looking Edward, she danced away. It looked as smooth as if she were on ice skates. I looked back at him. Those were questions I hadn't asked yet. What did his family think of me? Obviously at least Alice and Carlisle liked me enough to feed me and defeat villains for me. Instead of getting into any deep questions I wouldn't be able to get real answers from, I settled on something light as we continued walking.

"So how often do you eat exactly?" I asked. Obviously 3-5 times a day wasn't really in his schedule, or he wouldn't have seemed so annoyed with himself for forgetting. I didn't hear his response, but it was slowly spoken and articulated thoroughly so that I could read his lips, so I assumed he was not actually speaking. Private communication for the win.

"It depends on what I'm doing. Before I met you, I was practiced enough to wait about a month between meals. Some of us need to eat as regularly as weekly. Now that I'm spending so much time near you, I've increased to about three times a week."

"Sorry I'm causing an increase in appetite." I scrunched my nose, upset that I was causing him discomfort even now. He laughed, and then began speaking aloud again.

"Oh I'm sure the deer population will rebound."

I wanted to chuckle, but I had never really considered what he ate before. Jacob had told me that the Cullen clan preyed on animals, not humans, but I'd never thought of what animals that entailed.

"Well if they don't I've got a family of squirrels I can donate."

Edward started laughing wholeheartedly as we entered Biology. I quickly scarfed my granola bar and we sat down together, getting ample stares from our classmates. I realised that they weren't staring at me, but at Edward. They'd probably barely heard him speak, let alone laugh, and let alone laugh loudly enough that I could hear it. I bit my lip as I tried desperately not to blush. Was I really bringing out that much of a change in him? And if I could see that about him, I wondered what he could see about me.

Class was ordinary, and awesome. Edward's notes were a perfect transcript of Mr. Banner's voice, so he moved his page into the center of the desk and I read along as he wrote and drew. His diagram copying took a tenth of the time that Mr Banner used. I had no doubt that with Edward's notes I would never miss another second of Biology class. Class passed surprisingly quickly, and then Edward and I went our separate ways.

I made sure to be last to change so that no one would see the bruising I had obtained from yesterday. I claimed to need to untangle my ipod earbuds, and proceed to untangle them for much longer than was necessary, until I was basically alone in the changeroom. The last girl hurried her way out and I flipped my shirt off, and grabbed my gym shirt. I did not need questions about my sudden beaten up chest. I trotted out into the gym just as Clapp began sending us off onto courts. Mike was my gym partner, as always, but he seemed grumpier today. We spent most of the hour not talking, as he played sports and I played hide and seek with the dangerous objects around. It wasn't until I narrowly avoided tripping over my own feet and into him did he start talking to me.

"Sooooo… you and Cullen eh?" he managed. Articulate.

"Yeah, I guess. It's still pretty new." Literally yesterday new. I bit my lip and threw out, "Jessica got a great dress last night. I'm sure you'll look amazing together at the dance. Did you get her a corsage or are you saving that for prom?"

It took him a second with the redirect, but he answered. "I was saving that for prom. But I guess I could get her something. Like a flower for her hair or something?"

"That sounds perfect Mike. Go pink or red and you won't clash." I said, hoping that the conversation was safe. I was wrong.

"Thanks," he put his hand through his hair as we walked back towards the changing rooms. I'd managed to dodge death for a whole hour, an yet somehow it felt like minutes. "Are you taking Cullen to the dance?"

I sighed. "I'm still not going to be in town Mike. Not going dancing. End of story." I was kind of annoyed with him now. "What exactly do you have against Edward, Mike?"

I turned to face him square on, so I wouldn't miss what he said. He looked taken aback by my direct question, and then tried to look casual and cool again.

"I dunno. He's just – he's always so quiet, and then even when he looks at you. He looks at you like you're something to eat or something."

I tried really hard not to laugh, but it slipped out, and then I couldn't stop myself. Mike shrugged it off, kind of embarrassed with himself, and I laughed all the way into the changing room. This time round I didn't have to wait too long to hide m shirt changing. Everyone bolted out of the room, excited to get home for the day. After I was done changing back into what my father would call 'civilian' clothing, I walked out into the hallway, to find Edward leaning up against a locker. He immediately took my schoolbag from me, even though I tried to avoid it. I shook my head as we walked. Edward looked over my shoulder at Mike Newton and scowled.

"I'm starting to think I might have to do something about Newton."

I didn't respond, instead opting to dramatically roll my eyes at him. Apparently even very old boys were still boys. We walked in the rain to my truck and Edward got into the passenger side, moping. At first I thought he was still moping about Mike, but then I remembered that he hated being a passenger. Well he could get used to it. I started up the truck engine, fanning my hair in front of the heater and Edward leant away from me, tensing. I instinctually froze. When he didn't relax for a minute, I slowly signed 'What?'

"Give me a moment." He pinched the bridge of his nose, gritted his teeth, and then took a long, slow, deep breath. When he looked at me his eyes seemed excited. What had I missed? I dared to sign 'what' again, and he began signing back.

Drive. I'll explain on the way.

"I won't be able to hear you." I whispered sadly.

"You will." He said, turning his head and leaning against the window away from me. I backed the truck out and began driving home. When he didn't begin speaking I tried to dissuade the tension.

"So that family of squirrels I was offering for sacrifice…"

I saw him smile grimly as I looked over quickly.

"I'm sorry. You… smelled very good."

"That's normally a compliment, but I'm sensing that's not a good thing?" I wasn't sure how to fix it.

"I told you that I've been hunting more frequently since I met you."

"Yes. It was something I wanted to ask about, since obviously you've had other people around and it wasn't a problem before. But then I just kind of assumed it was all the life-saving and anger that was making you stress eat." I smiled at him, and he started to relax a little.

"Do you take anything seriously?" I couldn't detect tone, but his face looked annoyed.

"You try going what I've been through and tell me what your take on being serious is." I'd been through enough hardships that I knew taking myself and others too seriously led to nothing but sadness and annoyance.

"I'm sorry. I suppose you're right. Maybe I am stress eating as you call it. The other problem is that you have a very unique scent to me. It's… it's indescribably attractive."

"Like the best brand of popcorn?" I recalled our movie food analogy from before, as I pulled into my driveway.

"Popcorn isn't strong enough."

Better than popcorn? I signed in mock horror. He was suddenly not to my right in the truck cab, and instead opening my door for me, from the left. He leaned in, to stare straight into my eyes.

"Better than popcorn."

I had more questions, but my truck didn't feel like the place to be discussing them. I switched off the engine, and looked at Edward.

"Shall we continue this indoors?" I smiled. He offered a hand to help me out of the truck, and we walked toward my house. Charlie wasn't home, so I knew I'd have some privacy, but then I also frantically tried to remember the state of my room. I thought it was clean enough, but to be safe, we'd stay in the kitchen. As we walked in, Edward's sharp eyes looked around. I kicked off my shoes and tugged my school bag off of his shoulder. I led him to the kitchen, where I dumped my school books on the table.

"So I have two pressing questions for you."

Edward looked at me with concern.

"One, can we take turns asking questions for a while?"

"Of course. And the second?" he looked curious.

"Can I offer you a squirrel?" I pointed to the tree outside the kitchen window.