Dedicating this chapter to my best buddy, shmatey.

my other beta pretty much ditched me and never emailed me again... shmatey saved me.

thanks girl.

also listen to some Sing It Loud music while you read this because it was on nonstop while I was writing. Also some Mae, A Change of Pace, and The Fold. I don't know if they go along with the chapter, but hey it kept me goin.

thanks for reading... review!

-Cullen-Style

Bella's Schedule (changing it a bit):

1st- English

2nd- Pre Cal

Lunch

4th- Biology (of course!)

5th- Art

Chapter 4

"Beeeellllaa!" Alice screeched from her room. Quickly, I hopped vigorously to her room and found her in a huge pile of clothes that were strewn across the floor.

"I can't decide what to wear for the first day of school…" Alice whimpered. I rolled my eyes and groaned.

"Melodramatic much, Alice?" I grumbled and left… if you just gave Alice time she would figure things out. Most of the time, she just needed some space and to relax. I hobbled back to my room and pulled on a pair of light washed Seven for All Mankind jeans and a dark blue baby doll tank top. I topped it off with a dark gray Hollister zip up hoodie and a pair of navy flats. I brushed through my long, ordinary long brown hair then put a thin head band in. Smiling once for myself in the mirror, I grabbed my crutches that were resting on the wall and limped out my door.

"Ready, Bells?" Rosalie asked, sitting at the table and applying some lip gloss. Alice, Rosalie and I didn't really believe in make up… other than lip gloss and we had a TON of that. Besides, they Rosalie and Alice didn't even need it. I mean, we wore make up for special occasions because then it seemed extra special. But next to that, lip gloss was our best friend.

Rosalie's favorite was the ones from Smashbox, Alice's was Urban Decay, and mine was the peppermint flavor from Bath and Body… I wasn't sure what it was called but it was so yummy!

"Yeah… I mean as ready as I am ever going to be with these," I sighed; Rosalie knew I meant the crutches.

"Don't worry, you look great," she smiled at me. Rosalie always knew what to say to make me feel good, even though I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.

"Thanks, Rose."

Alice came out from her room, looking stunning… as always.

"How do I look?" she asked; it looked like she expected a bad opinion from her expression. She looked stunning without even trying.

"Perfect." Rosalie and I said at the same time. We locked eyes and started laughing.

"Lets get out of here, we're going to be late," I gasped for air and grabbed my bag that was sitting by the door.

"Yeah, the guys are going to be mad," Alice agreed and we rushed down the hall… me trailing a little behind.

We had promised to meet the guys before school started, mostly because Edward had first period with me and I was… crippled as they put it. The elevator came up quickly for us and we sank towards the bottom floor.

The guys were waiting for us in the main room, arguing about something, but whatever it was they stopped before we could comprehend the issue.

"Good morning!" Alice greeted, she was such a morning person.

"Aren't you excited for school?!" Emmet was practically jumping up and down… obviously he was too.

Rosalie and I exchanged a look… we had the feeling that today was going to be a long one. Jasper and Edward rolled their eyes at Emmet and whispered something that sounded something like "embarrassing" but I couldn't tell. Jasper took a look at his cell phone's clock.

"We should start walking to our first class, the bells going to ring in a few minutes and teachers hate it when your late on the first day," Jasper suggested politely. We all agreed and went our separate directions.

"How's the ankle, Bella?" Edward asked as he walked and I hobbled through the campus. Concentrating on not falling, I answered gruffly,

"Feels pretty good as long as I don't put any weight on it."

"Are you icing it?" Edward asked, curious. Gosh, was all the students in the school first aid experts? If they are, then I am in the right place, I was always injured.

"Yup; Dr. Cullen told me 20 minutes on and 20 off," I answered proudly.

"That's good, if you need any help you can call me, you know. I play basketball so ankle sprains and stuff are within my expertise," Edward laughed his musical laugh, but I took it sincerely.

"Thanks, that's nice of you. I might have to take you up on that offer." I smiled at him as he opened the door for English room for me. We weren't the first ones here, half of the students had already arrived.

"Good morning, there is no seating chart… yet. So take a seat wherever you please," the man teacher instructed us. He seemed nice enough.

"Yes, sir," Edward said and the teacher continued to walk the room. Edward turned towards me,

"Would you like to sit with me?" he asked.

"Of course," I replied. He was the only person I knew and was one of the nicest people I've met, for the time I had known him. Edward grinned, truly happy and pulled out a nearby chair for me. There were tables with two chairs at each; we were in the middle of the classroom on the far right side, by the window.

"Thank you," I said and sat down carefully and laid my crutches underneath the table. Edward walked around the table and sat down next to me. Promptly, a girl came up to him and started talking animatedly.

"Hi Edward! How was your summer? Mine was so great; I got to go to Paris for 2 weeks. That's where I got these boots, don't you love them? See, my dad wouldn't get them for me at first, but after a while of pouting he gave in!..." she continued on and on until the bell rang for class to begin. I don't think Edward said a word.

"Good morning class, I am Mr. Rubber," he greeted us. I think my mouth dropped open so wide that it hit the table top. Everyone, including Edward snickered. Then a few seconds too late a girl said a little too loudly,

"Oh! I get it!" That sent our class into another laughing fit, this one we didn't try to hide. Mr. Rubber –snicker snicker- continued once he had our attention.

"For the semester we will be reading four novels as a class; they will be To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, Grapes of Wrath, and Huckleberry Finn. If you don't like them, I don't really care so you can suck it up," he said vulgarly. I turned to Edward and gave him a surprised look, he seemed perfectly at ease.

"This paper I am passing out is your class syllabus, today we will go over this, and tomorrow if you still have any questions you will not as me, but reread this paper," he said while passing out the papers to each table at the front of the classroom. He occasionally licked his thumb to get a better grip on the papers… gross.

For the rest of class, we just sat there and soaked in the overly boring information. I almost fell asleep, but luckily I got a good nights rest last night. Finally, the bell rang, signaling our release for hell.

"What do you have next?" Edward asked as soon as we got outside.

"Pre Cal, you?" I asked.

"I have World History, but can we meet up for lunch?" he replied.

"Yeah, give me a call after class and then we can meet somewhere," I agreed.

"Okay, well I'll see you later, Bella," Edward slightly smiled.

"Bye." I turned around the corner and headed for my most hated subject.

Pre Calculus would have been terrible no matter what; I never can seem to relate to numbers as well as words and it just plain did not make any sense what so ever. After a long class period of introductions to Calculus, I finally got out of there. My cell phone vibrated in my pocket right on time.

"Hello Edward," I greeted, stuffing a paper into my bag as I was walking out of the room.

"Hello, where do you want to meet?" he asked, respectfully.

"I have no idea, do you have any suggestions?" I replied just as politely back, I wondered where he got his manners from, they were better than my own and my mother taught me well when I was young… then again she was only there when I was young.

"Well, since I am close to the cafeteria, I could get our food really fast and then meet you right outside the cafeteria. It's a nice day, maybe we could eat outside," the way he said it made it sound like a question.

"Yeah, sounds good. But are you sure the cafeteria workers will let you take that much food?" I asked, giggling at the possible outcome.

"Sure, if they ask… I'll just tell them that I have a tapeworm," Edward chuckled. But I did nothing of the sort, it brought back some painful, disgusting memories of when I saw one of those in a jar at a science festival. Ew.

"Gross, have you actually ever seen one?" I questioned. Laughter chimed on the other end of the line.

"Yup," Edward was undisturbed.

"Well go get our food, I'll meet you," I instructed, still grossed out.

"Okay, you better hurry though, I am already half way through the line," Edward said and the line disconnected.

I put my phone into my book bag and walked down the hall towards the cafeteria. The cafeteria was stuffed full of people, from what I could tell, separated into little cliques. No matter what high school you went to one factor remained constant, cliques. To put in perspective you had to see the movie "Mean Girls", it was a little on the extreme side, but truthful in some parts.

I could already tell who the popular kids were and who were considered to be 'losers'. It didn't really matter to me what my 'status' or 'rep' was, as long as I was happy and with my friends I had always thought that things would fall into place.

Then my eye caught Edward walking through the middle of the cafeteria, heading towards me, with a large tray of food… I mean he had so much food it should have been illegal! What did he think I was? A horse?

A girl came up to him and stopped him in the middle of the cafeteria; it looked like she wanted him to go sit with the popular kids… so that's what Edward is like in Bridgeton. Then surprisingly, he turned her down and pointed to me, saying something that was out of my reach to hear.

The curly brown haired girl turned around at me and scowled deeply. I just turned away and looked at something else, people already didn't like me. A waited a few moments and finally I heard his footsteps,

"Hey Bella, how was Pre Cal?" his soft voice was smiling, I could tell. I turned around to face the gorgeous, green eyed boy.

"Ugh, don't even ask," I groaned.

"Guessing that's a great!" Edward said sarcastically. I laughed as a reply, he really knew how to cheer me up.

"I over here okay to sit at?" Edward asked, motioning the tray to a picnic table that was on the edge of the forest, but some sunshine still hit it for warmth.

"Looks good." Edward led the way over to the picnic table and we sat down on opposite sides.

"How are we dividing this?" I asked after a few seconds of staring at the tray filled with food and drink.

"Take whatever you like…" Edward gestured a hand; allowing me to go first, like a gentlemen. A thought about it for a moment and grabbed the medium sized red apple. Edward scoffed,

"With all of the food: pizza, sandwich, hamburger. You go for the apple… so like a girl." I gave him an incredulous look and grabbed the piece of pizza and stuck out my tongue at him childishly.

"Sorry if I am not man-ish enough for you," I grumbled cynically. Edward grabbed the turkey sandwich and took a bite out of the half.

"Let's play twenty questions," he suggested after swallowing.

"Okay…" I agreed skeptically.

"But when you ask the questions you also have to answer it yourself, so that means we each answer 40 questions," he added, I nodded. I liked the idea of getting to know Edward better and this was only going to help.

"First question, what is your middle name?" Edward began the game.

"Marie." I answered promptly. Edward was thoughtful for a moment.

"Your's" I urged. Edward snapped out of thought,

"Oh, Edward Anthony Masen. By the way your name… fits you." He stated and gazed deep into my eyes. I blushed.

"My turn… what is your favorite color?" I asked; my blush still on my face. I dropped my head with my hair falling in my face, hoping to cover it.

"Hmm… probably blue. You?" he answered, looking undecided.

"Blue, too." I replied, my words rhyming unexpectedly.

"Where is your favorite place in the world?" Edward asked.

"Home," I answered instantly.

"Where is that?" he asked as soon as I had answered, not giving himself a chance to answer. I ignored it and answered truthfully, letting him in.

"Home is anywhere in which I belong… it is somewhere that I want to be."

Edward just started at me, evaluating my expression. I wasn't sure what was plastered on my face.

"You?" I reminded him.

"Home is… where I can go when everything else I falling apart and still trust that it won't change." He stated, struggling for words. This time I evaluated his expression, he looked…lost. I had a feeling that both of us did not have a strong sense of home.

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Biology went smoothly, the class seemed interesting… but tough. Edward said that biology was one of his stronger subjects so I could probably get some help from him. The teacher, Mr. Banner said that we could pick our own lab partners, but as soon as he saw us messing around he would force us to change partners.

Edward was asked to be lab partners with many girls and a few of his guy friends, but he asked me.

After biology, he went to his economics class, and I went art. The classroom was not what I expected, it was larger and desks did not inhabit it, long tables were randomly placed all over the vast floor. I took a seat in the middle of the class room. Students began to file in, nobody I knew. Once the bell rang the teacher began,

"Considering that I am sure that you've heard this beginning of the semester speech a thousand times, I'll keep it brief. I am Mr. Westlund and this is… art," he began monotonously.

"Okay, I am done, we'll go over this tomorrow. Play with this clay for the rest of the class period. It needs to represent you," he waved somebody over to help him pass out the tub of grayish clay.

"Oh and this is my TA, you treat him like the teacher… Tristan Ashburn," he introduced the boy that I already knew. My mouth dropped open when I saw him.

"Tristan there's nothing for you to do today, do whatever you want," Mr. Westlund said quietly to him. The class began to talk to each other as soon as the teacher left the front of the room, going to his desk.

Tristan passed out the clay, starting at the front of the class and humoring all of the students with his crazy dance moves. I began to laugh with the rest of the class,

"Go Tristan, Go Tristan!" the class began chanting, Tristan was doing the wave with his arms, then the sprinkler. He got to my table and stopped abruptly, when he saw me. His eyes widened and he passed out the rest of the clay normally.

He hates me. I know it. Why else would he have that reaction? I began to play around with my clay; mostly squishing it between my hands and pounding it into the table.

"Hey Bella, can I sit here?" Tristan asked, he probably felt bad for me, sitting by myself.

"Sure," I said, not really caring any more.

"What's up?" he asked while kneading his hard clay. I shrugged and sighed. Tristan ceased pressing his clay and looked at me; I could see his face in my peripheral vision. Confusion read across his face.

"What's wrong, Bella?" he asked, perplexed. I took a long look at him, then shook my head.

"Come on, Bella. Are you mad because I was dancing?" he tried to guess but it was the opposite.

"I'm mad because you stopped. You took one look at me and then you stopped," he answered turning my face away from him, childishly.

"Exactly, I stopped because you were here," he whispered sheepishly. Interested by this reaction, I turned my head back to him. I wrinkled my forehead with thought.

"I don't want to embarrass myself in front of you," he admitted quietly. I laughed once,

"Right, you are the boy that did the Crank That dance in front of the whole entire school, remember?" he reminded him, unbelieving.

"You are so mature, and I just didn't want you to think that all I did was screw around," Tristan lowered his head.

"How could I think that? You want to be that fancy doctor guy and rescued me," I smiled at the remembrance of that day.

"A neurosurgeon," he corrected.

"I think you dancing is hilarious and adorable," I complimented. Tristan lifted his eyes from the table and his eyes were alighted.

"Thanks," he smiled and a faint blush was visible on his gorgeous features.

"Why do you care so much about my opinion anyways?" I asked, curious. I tilted my head to the side, slightly. Tristan's blush grew more pronounced. And he looked down at my lump of gray clay.

"What are you going to make your's into anyway," he questioned pointing to my clay.

"I don't really know… maybe crutches," I giggled. Tristan rolled his eyes,

"It does represent you," he agreed.

"Are you going to make something?" I asked and motioned my head towards the clay that was in between his hands.

"Would a football be too cliché?" he asked. I smirked for a moment and then nodded reluctantly.

"What do you think I should make then?" he asked after my disapproval. I was thoughtful for a moment, trying to remember everything that I know about him.

"How about just a person; because there is more to you than people see," I suggested quietly with my eyes on the table top, embarrassed at what I just said. Tristan leaned over to see my face and smiled,

"I think just a person would be perfect."

For the remainder of Art class Tristan and I talked about a bunch of random things; from if we were photogenic to movies that made us cry… Tristan said that no movie ever made him cry. I didn't believe that for one second.

The bell rang and Tristan was finished with his person and I sculpted a book… which was basically a rectangle with detailed edges. We put our clay on the back table, letting it dry and I grabbed my bag and began walking to my dorm room.

"Bella, wait!" Tristan called, jogging to me.

"It's because I like you," he said breathlessly when he reached me.

"What?" I was confused, what was he talking about? What did he just say?!

"I care about your opinion so much, because I like you," he repeated. I was speechless but blushed deeply.

"Do you want to go out with me this Friday?" he asked. I didn't need a second thought.

"That sounds great," I smiled. Tristan pulled out his cell phone from his back pocket,

"Can I have your phone number, so you know, I can call you sometime?"

"Sure, its 415- 662- 5450" I replied and he typed it into his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"See you around," I said calmly.

"Bye," he beamed. I turned back around and started my walk to my dorm room. Then I heard someone yelling boisterously.

"WOOOOO!! YES!" I abruptly turned around.

Tristan was literally leaping up and down excitedly while running in my opposite direction, giving high fives to random people. I chuckled to myself and continued to walk… with a little more bounce in my step I might add.

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It was the end of my second school day at Bridgeton when Alice and Rosalie exploded.

"Bellawhydidn'tyoutellusthatyouaregoingoutonadatewithTristanAshburn?!" Alice screamed at the top of her lungs the moment I got in the door of our room. I hadn't even closed the door yet. Alice's face was beginning to turn red. I looked around nervously, trying to think of an excuse.

"Uh…" I began but Rose cut me off.

"Don't even make an excuse, Bella! We should have been first to know and not by over hearing some stupid gossiping girls conversation at lunch!" Rosalie shot daggers at me. I was speechless and stood there with my mouth hanging slightly open for a moment.

"Well…" Alice dragged the word out for a longer than necessary.

"I forgot," I said sheepishly. They exhaled loudly.

"Oh god, Bella!" Rosalie hit the palm of her hand on her head, exasperated.

"Do you at least know what you are supposed to wear?" Alice asked, like I was supposed to have this done already. I looked down at the floor, like an ashamed child… I felt like an ashamed child.

"No," I mumbled softly. I expected another outburst from Alice but instead there was an ominous silence,

"Guess we'll just have to prepare for every possibility," Alice clapped her hands together excitedly; there was no doubt in my mind that this was my punishment for secrecy. I groaned, but I guess I deserve it. Then a light bulb alighted in my head,

"…where are we going to shop, Alice?" I asked; I outsmarted the mastermind! Alice just grinned back,

"Jasper tells me there's a mall nearby."

"And how are we going to get there, we have no transportation," I smiled, keeping calm.

"Luckily, all of our clothes and cars arrived today. Isn't that wonderful Bella," Alice said, she won and she knew it.

"Wonderful," I said sarcastically and went to my room in surrender.

I flopped onto my blue bed head down and sighed deeply.

"Bella," Rosalie broke the silence. I didn't budge from my position.

"What," I grumbled. Instead of hearing a response I felt the weight of my bed transfer and I guessed that Rosalie was on the bed next to me.

"Our stuff is here, Alice and I are going to go down to tell the people where to put it and park our cars and stuff. Are you coming?" Rosalie asked, gently. I shrugged, from the position I was in it was an awkward motion. Rosalie started to stroke my long, wavy hair.

"Come on, Bella. You know we love you," Rosalie comforted me. I shook my head stubbornly. Rosalie giggled and I could hear the smile in her voice,

"Remember that time when in elementary school we had the substitute teacher and I got into trouble for talking back to him?" This caught my attention I turned on my side to face her.

"You mean in 5th grade," I asked. Rosalie nodded and then continued.

"The sub got so mad and told me to go to the office, then you and Alice talked back to him too so he sent all three of us to the principle's office."

I nodded, remembering the shade of red the man turned. I smiled to myself.

"I think since then we have had a silent vow to never let anybody do something without each other… and I know that we've had trouble with boys," Rosalie, Alice and I have definitely had our share of tears from break ups and such,

"And by doing things together, like shopping for the 'perfect date outfit' makes it so if one of us is hurt, we can all take the fall. We don't like seeing one of us sad when another isn't. We'd rather be crying with them than have to watch the other cry without us."

Rosalie was so right; I couldn't do anything without them no matter how hard I tried. And if by a miracle I did do something completely independently, I would only be able to succeed knowing that they were there for me if I failed.

I wiped the tears that had formed in my eyes and got up from the bed, stiffly.

"Ready to go downstairs?" Rosalie asked while giving me a tight hug. I gave her a genuine smile and swallowed.

"Never better."

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After I parked my car, which was a midnight blue Audi A5 with black leather interior… it was my baby. Alice had her canary yellow Porche Turbo 911 and Rosalie's red convertible BMW.

As much as we were just girls… we loved cars, especially Rosalie. Rosalie was the car expertise… seriously. She knew more than the guys at the shop and fixed our cars constantly. I wouldn't trust anybody else.

Slowly I got out of my car and Alice and Rose were waiting for me on the side walk.

"Feels good to be driving it again, doesn't it?" Rose asked sounding refreshed.

"You have no idea, I missed it more than I thought," I admitted.

"I think we should go get started on unpacking… it's going to take us days," Alice said and we headed to the entrance of our building.

The sad part was that she wasn't embellishing the 'days' part. It literally was going to take us days.