Stephenie Meyer owns all of the rights.

It's not supposed to feel this way

I need you, I need you

More and more each day

It's not supposed to hurt this way

I need you, I need you, I need you

Tell me, are you and me still together?

Tell me, you think we could last forever?

Tell me, why

Why – Avril Lavigne

Surprisingly, I didn't get in any trouble at all with the director. Okay, maybe that wasn't surprising after all – the rest of my life seemed to be falling in line nicely, why shouldn't I get a cut from all of the yelling and pain and trouble, too? Luckily I got off with a "don't do it again, Bella" and nothing else.

Life was falling into place.

I had the hardest time lying in my bed, trying to be still. I knew that the next morning at school, I would be seeing the whole Cullen family (well, minus Esme and Carlisle, of course!). I could hardly hold in my happiness. Yes, that was a big deal to me. I had missed the whole family so, so much.

Edward had made it clear to me that as long as I didn't out right say that I didn't want him to be in my life anymore, he would be sticking around. I couldn't get that thought out of my head. Sure, I didn't trust him 100, but he still had said it. Wasn't it awful that after all of these years alone, words like that could make my heart soar in ways that I had never thought to be possible again? Of course, my heart wasn't soaring literally – I had no heart– but it felt good none-the-less.

I was starting to firmly believe that vampires felt everything more than humans. I knew that we had always been more sensitive to our feelings, but I had never felt excitement like this before. I supposed that all the loneliness that I had felt throughout my existence was doubled, too. I just had never sat down and made comparisons like that before, I guessed.

My excitement only multiplied when I saw the first dismal rays of sunshine being overpowered by the haze and fog of rain that was once again encompassing Shoreline. Oh, how I loved the Northwest Peninsula.

As soon as one of the girl's alarm clocks went off, I jumped out of my bed. I was moving quite too fast for my own good – quick enough to give myself away. I forced myself to slow down a little, but I couldn't keep the smile off of my face.

"You look happy today, Bella," said one of the girls my age. In the half-way house, you were separated into rooms with girls that were the same age as you. This girl's name was Maggie, and from what I could tell, she was a decent person who had just been stuck in an unfortunate situation with her parents and was kicked out. Having no where else to turn and too ashamed to stay in the same town, she traveled 150 miles to Shoreline and came seeking shelter at the home here. I thought she was quite interesting.

"I am," I confided, though I kept the reason to myself. I didn't need to tell Maggie that I saw a former friend; that would raise questions and concerns amongst the girls and adults.

"Did you get in trouble for skipping yesterday?" She asked, though I could tell that she was worried about me more than anything. I think that she didn't want to see me get into trouble over something as silly as school. Also, I knew that she herself had a fear of being kicked out of the home, and probably didn't want to see any of the other girls kicked out either.

"No, not really," I replied as I pulled my shirt over my head. "They just told me to not do it again." I started to pull on my pair of blue jeans. I literally only had like three outfits – all consisting of worn out blue jeans. I owned three shirts, too. Somehow, I had an eerie feeling that Alice would put an end to that as soon as she found out.

"That's good," she smiled at me. "I'll see you at school, then," she added as she made her way towards the bathroom.

I paused for a moment to ponder my thoughts. As a "runaway" teen, I had been very fortunate to make a lot of unique friends that I wouldn't have been able to have made if I hadn't had this lifestyle. I called them unique because they all had their different stories; some were drug users, others were kicked out, some left due to some event and some had thought life would be better this way. In the end, we were all in the same boat. More importantly than that, though, was the fact that I knew that we were all fiercely loyal to one another for one reason: we were family now.

I quickly made my way to school. I didn't want to miss a moment of being around the Cullen Clan if I could prevent it. And, to my astonishment, they appeared to be waiting out front of the school... for me! Or that is how they made it seem to me, because even Rose joined in their chorus of "Hey Bella!"'s. It was very warm and very, very nice.

I offered a small smile. "Hey, guys. How are you?"

I received a chorus of "fine"s and "perfect"s. It was nice to know that they were happy and healthy and everything. I was happy that all of the Cullen children were there. Rose even seemed to be smiling at me, which must have been a good sign. I was glad to finally be in her good graces. As much as I had tried to not let her dislike for me bother me, it had always made me wonder what I had done wrong.

"Bella, what is your schedule like?" Emmett asked me with a small smile. My face was blank – I had only been in school for one day and he was asking about my schedule! Luckily, I remembered that I still had it in my bag, so I pulled it out and handed it to him. Edward and Jasper and Alice crowded around him so that they, too, could read what classes I would be in and when.

"Sweet!" Edward exclaimed, high-fiving Jasper.

"What?" I asked confused. Had I missed something? I most definitely had! I let myself hope that meant that Edward and I a class together, but I was still wary. Besides, why did that grin on his face look slightly evil? I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know... then...

"Oh, you'll see later," he said as he ribbed Emmett and pointed to something on my schedule. Emmett started to laugh, but he warned them, "Don't you tell her – I wanna see her face when she finds out."

"Edward, honestly! What is so fun–" I was cut off by the brisk ringing of the bell. Emmett handed my schedule back to me with a grin and gave me a kiss on my forehead goodbye. Jasper ruffled my hair a bit before walking off with Alice to their first period. Edward just offered me a grin and a girlish wave goodbye.

I walked off fuming to my physics course that would start the day. The teacher was still droning on about vectors and how important they were to physics and blah blah blah. I could feel myself losing interest. Whatever Edward had pointed at was enough to make me lose concentration all day. It was a good thing for him that I had already taken all of these courses before, or I would have been very upset with him.

By seventh period, I had found out.

I walked into the gym just as I normally would. You would think that as a vampire, my gym class skills would now be flawless and fantastic. However, they weren't. Just because I could hit the ball harder and faster than anyone else in my class didn't mean that I was graceful. I still was quite prone to being hit in the head and the face and everywhere else, come to think of it, by rogue balls. I was still prone to making a fool of myself in gym class.

I preferred physics over gym.

So, imagine my surprise when I walked into the gym and saw Mr. Edward Cullen sitting as pretty as can be on the bleachers. I wanted to kill him. I knew that it wasn't my fault or his fault that he was in my gym class, but he had known about it earlier this morning. At least this morning I could have gone and protested it to the school office, saying that I needed it at a different hour for whatever reason... but no. I had no warning whatsoever. Edward was dead meat.

"Hello, Edward," I replied cooly as I sat down beside him.

"Ah, come on, Bella! I just wanted to surprise you. There was no way that you could have known that I would have been in this gym class with you since you skipped yesterday and I wasn't here the day before. It's all in good fun, right?" He asked quickly, checking my expression to make sure that I wasn't really mad at him.

I let my features ease up to let him know that I wasn't really mad at him. I couldn't stay mad at him now – I had never been able to do that. He always was able to pull the truth out of me. Well, when it came to my feelings, anyway. He was always able to "dazzle" them out of me, as I used to put it. He was still extremely talented at that, it looked like.

"I don't mind, Edward. Just some warning would have been nice."

Before he could respond, the teacher came into the gym. By now there were about thirty kids sitting on the bleachers around us, waiting for our instructions. To my horror, the coach was dribbling a basketball. Edward must have noticed me tense up a bit because he let out a low chuckle. I kicked his foot with mine and he smiled at me appreciatively.

"Today we'll be starting the basics of basketball. You'll need to partner up and we'll go over the basics: dribbling, passing, shooting. Okay, everyone, pick your partner!" He exclaimed as he blew the whistle.

"Bella?" Edward asked and I nodded. I supposed that it was a no-brainer that we would be partners today. Actually, I was starting to think to myself that Edward would probably take me as his partner or make sure that I ended up on his team everyday. Not that I minded... okay, yes I did mind. Edward was amazing at sports... I wasn't even good enough to call "mediocre".

Some things never change.

By the end of the class, I was glad that at least Edward found it amusing. He told me that he would walk me to my next class so that I didn't get lost if I waited for him to return the ball to the ball rack. Of course I would wait!

"You would think that you would have gotten better at sports after all of these years," he whispered in a low tone. I could feel his icy breath on my ear and I knew that if I had the power, goose bumps would have been crawling up my arms. It had been so long that I had waited and pined for his voice. Even though he was using it to be mean to me right now, I couldn't even find it in my power to scold him.

"Thanks, Edward," I replied dryly, trying - and failing – to keep the smile off of my face. I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders as he messed up my hair in a very Emmett style fashion, but he immediately dropped his hands to his sides again.

"Bella, can I see you after school?"

I shook my head 'no'. "I have to do my group therapy thing today after school," I replied. "And, I have to have permission to leave the house, you know? So unless we have some school project... for gym class... I don't think that I'll be getting any permission to spend time alone with you soon," I responded with a shrug.

Okay, yeah, that broke my heart. I really did want to spend time with Edward again. Even if we couldn't have what we once had..., my heart ached for him. I wanted to spend as much time catching up with him as I possibly could.

"Oh," he responded softly and I could tell that he was looking for a way to figure it out. "How long will you live at the home?"

"Until they kick me out – when I turn 18. So we've got some time yet," I told him gently. "Edward, really. I'd love to spend time with you. We'll just have to work it out, okay? Please be patient."

"I've waited 50 years, I suppose I can wait a couple more days," he resigned. I simply beamed at him in return.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," I informed him as we approached my class.

"It's great getting to see you again, after all of these years," he told me. He pulled me into a quick hug and then turned and walked away, going towards his class.

I never thought that I would say that I was starting to enjoy school once more.