Chapter Four

I took a deep breath and walked towards him. His eyes met mine and held as I did. I had to look away from his stare. I sat down and looked around nervously. But why was I so nervous? I was never this nervous in this sort of situation.

"Hi." I looked back at him. His hand was flexing and unflexing and he appeared really nervous, his eyes flicking over the other people in the room. He seemed unsure of how to talk to me… or if he should at all.

I didn't know either. "Hello."

He coughed and said, "I'm Edward Cullen. And I probably should have already told you that…" Edward… it was a good name for him.

I had to smile a little. "Don't sweat it… I didn't tell you mine either. It's Bella, by the way, Bella Swan."

We shook hands. The teacher called our attention then. Neither of us looked away. We were staring into each others eyes, trying to work out where we stand.

"Mr Cullen. Bella, if you'd please?"

We both turned around then grudgingly, pretending to listen. Second by second, I could feel my eyeballs straining to see him out of my peripheral vision. He seemed to be doing the same, and when our eyes met, we both hurriedly looked away. We were like pre-schoolers. After this though he seemed to really concentrate, writing lots of notes on his notepad. I have no idea of what though, the teacher was only talking about our course for the rest of the year, nothing remotely interesting or useful.

Halfway through the lesson, the lecture was over and we were instructed to work through our workbooks, answering questions. Describe and illustrate the process of protein synthesis.

I was watching Edward's hands. Those hands that I could remember running along my bo- stop it, Bella! His hands were twirling a pencil, tapping a beat on his page. Clearly he was nervous.

"So…" he was straining to come up with words. And I couldn't help him.

"So…"

His hands grazed my knee, pulling away quickly as if he was unsure of how I would react. As if he'd been scalded.

He looked at me closely then and winced. Confused I glanced down and saw that the cover up I had put on my hickey had rubbed off. He went to touch the bruising, but pulled his hand away when he realised what he was doing. Why was he acting so nervous?

"Bella… how old are you?"

"Eighteen." He let out the breath he had been holding at this, an immense look of relief on his face. "How old are you?" His cheeks started turning red. The teacher came over then and looked through his notes before he could reply. He nodded his head as he read them and handed him a small slip of paper.

"Sorry for partnering you up. The class has an odd number now. Sorry for the inconvenience, Mr Cullen."

"Oh, it's my pleasure, sir." I raised my eyebrows at the general ease and casualness of their conversation. It was kind of a show of camaraderie the way they were behaving. Mr. Banner walked away and Edward caught my expression. He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes darting around the room before coming to rest on mine. He leaned a little closer and whispered, "Okay, I'm sorry but I have to ask. Why'd you leave so early?"

Okay, so not exactly the question I was expecting.

"Why? You didn't quite seem up for a second round."

His eyebrows rose, clearly not expecting that answer. Neither was I really.

"I'm always ready for round two, babe." It was my turn to cock my eyebrow this time.

"I –"

I was cut off by the bell. Stupid timing. Lifting my books I left the room quickly, after a quick wink in his direction. He looked a little shell shocked now and looked in the opposite direction as if he didn't notice.

I had gym now. Oh joy…

I followed the other girls into the change rooms and saw Alice in there, dressed already. We nodded in greeting and she said that she would meet me in the gym.

I got changed quickly into the sports uniform, taking in my appearance. The shorts were blue and were very small. If I bent over too far, you would probably see an arse cheek. The white tank top came down to just above my hips, leaving a nice slice of bare skin to ogle. I entered the gym and noticed that the uniform looked as trashy on everyone else as it did on me. I'm thinking a man designed the uniforms.

I sat down on the bleachers and looked around me at all the other students. It was slightly chaotic with the actual athletic students throwing balls to one another, nearly trampling all of the girls who were in a circle around their mirror, applying lip gloss. I laughed quietly. And then I saw him again.

He was in the middle of the athletes, staring at me, with a small trace of a small upon his lips. A ball was thrown at him, and he caught it easily- cradling it against his chest before propelling it straight back into the air at another boy, his eyes never leaving mine. His eyebrow cocks and-

A hand waves in my face. My eyes refocus on the hand; and I tried to quell the disappointed feeling I felt when I couldn't see him any longer. I concentrated now on the girl who came to sit beside me- closer than I would have liked.

"Hi there! I'm Jessica, and I noticed you didn't really know anyone. It's okay… I think we could probably get along. C'mon, I'll go introduce you to some people." Her hands grabbed my arm dragging me forward.

"No, no. That's okay. I know everyone I need to, I think." She looked a bit hurt but then sat back down, bouncing a little, clearly overexcited. Or she took something a little too strong for her. I sat beside her again looking bored. It was an uncomfortable silence between us, but I loved watching her squirm.

"So… you seen anyone you liked yet?" Her eyes momentarily flashed across the room, and back again, hoping I hadn't caught the motion.

"Oh, I've definitely been getting a feel for the guys around here…" Let her make what she wanted of that.

"Oh," she clearly did not understand the implications, "okay then." A few more seconds pass. "Hang on… feel? Oh whatever- who is it, I'm pretty well known, maybe I could set you up with someone?"

I had to stop myself from laughing in her face. But I managed well, I think. Thankfully the teacher came out at this point to call our attention. He announced we would be playing volleyball and gave us all partners. During his speech Edward came up to stand beside him and said something quietly to him. He nodded at the coaches reply and started setting up the nets. What is with this guy being such close buds with all the teachers?

I was partnered with Mike who walked over happily to stand next to me.

I ran my hand through his hair (making a mental note never to do so again- very greasy) and pushed him forward, "C'mon Mikey, I need your muscles. I'm not so into the whole physical activity thing."

He smiled and charged forward, saving our volleyball net for us.

I sauntered closer looking over my shoulder at Edward, who wasn't looking at me yet. Jessica went running up to him pulling him to the other side of my court.

I could hear her voice echoing through the gym, "Please, Edward? You have to play too, and I don't have a partner." He looked a bit put off but joined our court anyway.

My eyes trailed over his body while I thought of the best methods to get his body all hot and sweaty again. I walked behind Mike, my lips at his ear whispering as I massaged his shoulders slowly. "I want to win, Mike." I heard him gulp beside me, so to finish him I off I took the lobe of his ear into my mouth and tore at it for a moment before walking away as if nothing had happened. Both Edward and Jessica were watching my every move. Edward just looked amused.

He raised the ball in his hands, "Ready?" Without waiting for a reply he hit it over the net straight at Mike. Mike fumbled badly, clearly shocked. "Mike- just cup your hands together like this and thrust upwards, yeah? The idea is to hit it, not catch it." The ball was returned to Edwards hands and the first four shots were to Edward's team. Come on Mike, a three year old could do better than this…

Thankfully, Mike caught the fifth shot with the tips of his fingers; I rushed toward the ball knocking it over desperate for some sort of action at some point. It made it over the net and landed at Jessica's stationary feet.

Jessica didn't like this too much though and when it was her time to start, her eyes formed tiny slits in her forehead trying to intimidate me. We had a few good rounds of rallies between the four of us before I knocked another at Jessica's feet. But this time Edward laughed at her. And apparently it must have been my fault. She eyed me off and threw it, volleying it off her hands straight at me, the ball travelling faster than I expected. I was a bit shocked but recovered well as it came straight towards my face. I managed to volley the ball back into the air and slammed it. I guess Jessica didn't have very good reflexes as it hit her nose, blood pouring from her nostrils after a nasty crack echoed through the gym.

"Swan, you have clean up duty after class." I made a movement to object to the teacher but he waved at me to keep silent, "Mr. Cullen take Jessica to the nurse. Rest of you into the locker rooms. It's quitting time…"

Everybody left, leaving all the volleyballs askew over the gym. I sighed and began to pick them all up, placing them onto the trolley. Then I struggled to bring down all the nets. I had gotten one packed away and was struggling with the second when the gym doors opened again. I turned to look and saw Edward silhouetted through the outside lights.

He approached me slowly and his eyes travelled the length of my body, finally coming to a stop at my eyes. He moved closer, I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to. "Bella. I have to apologise for what happened the other night. It shouldn't have happened. And I am sorry. I would really appreciate it if you could possibly keep it between us though."

"Ashamed of it? First time you've done it, or something? Whatever, doesn't matter. I'm not going to tell anyone."

He let out the breath he'd been holding, "thankyou. Again, I'm really sorry about this."

"What are you so sorry about? It wasn't that bad."

"What? No! That's not what I mean. God, it was great," I smiled a little at this "but technically I'm not allowed. It's illegal." Illegal? "But I didn't even know," he started telling himself.

"Edward. What are you on about? It's fine, we're both consenting adults. If I had known you were going to react like this I wouldn't have bothered with you."

"Bella. We're not both consenting adults… you're a student." I looked at him dumbly.

"Yeah. And?…"

"And I'm your teacher."

AN: hehe. So who saw that one coming? Sry about the cliffie, but i love them too much not to write one. AND THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS, GUYS!! Keep em coming? Tell me what you thought. Next chappie should be up in a couple of days...