A/N:

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns the plot and characters of Twilight, not to mention all the money it makes. I make nothing but fanfiction.

Chapter 2 – "Dead Fish"

I heard Carlisle come home past midnight, but I didn't get up out of bed, turn down the music or go out to greet him. Radiohead bounced around my room, filling every inch of space with the sounds that I had hoped would drown out the day I had. I heard Carlisle knock on my door. "Son? Are you up?" I didn't answer. He eventually went away and I rolled over in my bed.

I hated Forks. I'd only been here for a day but I already hated it. The people were crazy, everyone was out of their goddamned minds. I was angry with Carlisle for moving us here. I didn't want to face him.

The album repeated itself three times before I finally fell asleep.

***

The next morning I found myself sitting in my Volvo again, not wanting to get out and face the school. I took deep breaths again, reminding myself it wasn't so bad. All in my head. Bella Swan had better things to do than hate me. I was sure that her attempt to get out of being my lab partner was just as she'd claimed. She worked better alone and didn't want me to hold her back. I'd work hard and show her she wouldn't have to worry about it. I was ahead of my peers, too.

I got out of the car and almost immediately was assaulted by Jasper. "Edward, man, I didn't think you'd make it out of the car for a minute there."

I made a face. "I wasn't in there that long."

Jasper snorted, and I thought he was choking before I realized he was laughing. He stuffed his hands into his jacket pocket and presented me with a pack of clove cigarettes. Nasty. "You were in there so long, Alice was worried you'd died of monoxide poisoning."

I shook my head at his cloves and he shrugged and stuck one between his lips. He offered me a flask instead, and I raised my eyebrows. I snuck a mouthful. Cheap scotch. At least it took the edge off the morning, I thought as I handed it back. "Where is Alice, anyway?" In a room with soft walls, I hoped.

He took a mouthful of the scotch for himself then jerked his head back towards the woods on the edge of the parking lot. "She and Bella are having their morning tokes. Emmet is in his Jeep with Rosalie." He gestured to the giant red jeep that couldn't have been more Emmet if his face had been plastered on its side. As I watched, the windows fogged up. Lovely.

Looking into Jasper's eyes I realized he must have had his morning tokes already. I said nothing, but couldn't resist the urge to smile and shake my head at him.

He smiled back, and I wondered if he had read my mind. Or maybe he was just too stoned to care why I was amused. "You toke, Edward?"

I shrugged, pulling out my Luckies. "Not too often."

Jasper shook his head and chuckled, snorting again as he produced a lighter and lit up. "In Forks, you'll need it, man. It's un-fucking-bearable. When my folks moved out here, I was twelve, and I thought for sure I was being punished. I begged them to send me to boarding school. If it weren't for Bella and hash, I probably would've lost my mind."

I accepted his lighter and lit my own cigarette, thinking about this. Something Lauren had told me the day before seemed to correspond with this. "You and Bella are close?"

Jasper nodded, looking thoughtful. He seemed to hesitate as he debated saying something, then shook his head and smiled a watery smile at me.

"So how long has it been for you and Alice?" It felt like talking about Bella wasn't something Jasper was willing to do, so I automatically went with the mandatory questions of early friendship.

Apparently, it was the right question, because Jasper's face lit up at the mention of her name, and his eyes became slightly more lucid. "Two years. I was just getting out of a pretty serious relationship, and Alice just came right up to me exactly fourteen days after it ended and asked if an appropriate time had passed and if I were ready to start dating again. I told her I wasn't really, and she just nodded and came back fourteen days later. The third time, I gave in and we went out. The rest is history, like they say."

I nodded and processed this. It was easy to imagine. Alice as the song that never ends, Jasper as the dazed listener too stoned to get over the novelty of it. Match made in heaven. We smoked together silently after that, and the bell rang just as Alice came racing through the bushes, launching herself into Jasper's arms. Dang, she was tiny. Immediately, she began singing at Jasper, and I tried my best to reduce her voice to a high-pitched buzz. This would be a useful skill if I was going to be spending time with Jasper, which I had a feeling I would want to do. He seemed cool enough.

Bella came stumbling after her, and for a moment I thought she was going to fall. She caught herself on the hood of a green Honda and giggled, shaking her head until she looked up and saw me.

She was dressed in a pair of worn jeans, and her sneakers again, but she had on this blue blouse that made her skin look… luminous. Her hair looked messier today, like she'd been running her fingers through it, and as if on cue she ran her fingers through it now, looking at me with clear distaste. She made no move to come towards us, instead turning around to the building and heading inside one of the outhouses. Unbelievable.

The doors of the Jeep were being slammed shut, and Rosalie was glaring at me too. Jeez, what a morning. And classes hadn't even started yet. She marched off with a toss of her blonde hair, her heels clicking angrily as she went and Emmet rumbled with laughter that I realized must be quiet for him. "What a woman."

He clapped me on the shoulder when he reached us, and I took a moment to appreciate the dark circles under his eyes that were the result of a blunt force trauma to the nose. He seemed to read my mind and roared with laughter, which I responded to by shaking my head and smiling again. Truly unbelievable. Alice didn't shut up, and her voice only disappeared when she and Jasper were out of earshot.

In Spanish class, Lauren chattered at me incessantly, and I tried my best to remain polite and not brush her off. She was making it quite the task. Were all Forks girls this mindless?

In gym class, Cheney stood back and let me play Emmet while Jasper hung out to the side trying to balance his tennis racket on his forehead. We got a couple good shots at one another, and I was now sporting several ball-sized bruises on my chest and arms. Shockingly enough, I was starting to enjoy myself.

It wasn't until we started walking towards the cafeteria for lunch that I started tensing up again. I berated myself mentally. It was ridiculous really, being so tense about a little girl. I could say with a fair amount of conviction that whatever nervousness resulting from my attraction to her was good and gone now. But the memory of her big brown eyes filled with hate, directed at me, clearly wishing I was elsewhere – or better yet, dead – made me suppress a shudder. I stepped into the cafeteria bracing myself for a hammer blow, but blinked when I realized we were among the first students to enter.

Of course. The gym class let out early to give us time to clean up and change. We'd be here first. It'd been the same the day before. I tried not to look over my shoulder too much as I sat and picked at the food on my tray. I didn't know why I even bothered to get anything. Emmet was stuffing his face with every sign of enjoyment, but Jasper had his hands wrapped contentedly around a juice box, the straw between his teeth, his eyes glazed and unfocused. Next time, I told myself, I take the Jasper route.

Alice squealed excitedly and bounced her way over to Jasper, who dropped his juice box immediately to accept her on his lap. I stiffened my shoulders and refused to turn around and see Bella approach. Still, I felt her coming all the same, like some strange magnetic field, and it made me too tense to move for a while.

"You're in my fucking seat, Edgar."

I blinked and turned my head to see her standing next to my seat, one hand in her pocket while the other deposited her bag at her feet. "Excuse me?"

"I said," she repeated in a sickly sweet voice, "you're in my fucking seat, Edgar."

I looked to Jasper for some kind of sign that this was a bad joke, but he and Alice had somehow glued their faces together. I looked to Emmet, and he paused in his eating to shrug at me. "I guess it kinda is. She always sits there."

I looked back up at her and she looked triumphant. It was so fucking juvenile, I didn't know if it was all a joke to her. All the same, I wasn't going to let her get to me. "That's fair," I smiled at her, my most charming, dazzling smile, and her expression faltered for a moment. "Allow me."

I stood up and held the chair out for her, maintaining my smile. She looked at me suspiciously and hesitantly lowered herself into it, letting me slide it back into the table for her. When she was seated, I pulled my tray to her left and took the seat next to hers. She continued to glare at me, but I was determined to be nice to her.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked, noting the absence of her tray for the second day in a row.

She folded her arms and pouted, and if she was a normal girl I would have told her how fucking adorable that looked. But she wasn't so I didn't. "Cafeteria food is the scum from the bottom of the barrel's droppings. I refuse to touch the stuff."

She bit her lip suddenly and glared at me with renewed vigor, as though angry at me for tricking her into talking to me. She turned her head and deliberately looked away, at anyone and anything but me. Clearly, she thought the conversation was over.

I'm not sure why I said it, but suddenly I wanted to. In the worst way. "I heard a rumor about a dead cat in a locker, involving you somehow."

Alice's chatter stopped, and everyone at the table was staring at me open-mouthed. I immediately wanted to take it back, but instead I concentrated on looking at Bella, keeping my face politely interested and passively curious. Fucking word vomit.

"Dead cat?" Jasper scratched his chin and leaned back in his chair. Alice was fidgeting in his lap. "I thought it was a dead rat."

Emmet shook his head. "I heard it was a dead pigeon. Only the thing'd been dead for a while even before it got stuck in the locker, so it was rotting and smelly as hell and there were maggots all over it."

Alice shuddered delicately and Bella actually growled. "It was a fish, and it was from my dad's fishing trip. Jeez, I pulled it out of the freezer and thought it would be funny. Haven't any of you fuckers ever seen 'The Godfather'? And you guys all know it was a fish! You were there! The school smelled like fish for a week. Where the fuck would I get a dead cat?"

"What dead cat?" Rosalie leaned over Emmet and planted a kiss on his forehead, causing him to grin like an idiot. She sat beside him, draping her arm over his shoulder and looked at Bella with curiosity. Her brow furrowed when she noticed everyone's expression.

"Edward heard a rumor about Bella and a dead cat," Alice started, and I saw her preparing to launch into one of her epic monologues before Rosalie expertly cut her off.

"That's silly. I clearly remember it being a dead rabbit."

Jasper and Emmet burst into laughter simultaneously, and Alice giggled like a sociopathic child. Bella put her hands flat on the table and tried to look upset, but I saw the corners of her lips twitch as she fought a smile. I let myself join the laughter, chuckling quietly and shaking my head. She glared at me and I stopped, but couldn't completely hide my smile. What a strange and frightening girl.

"I heard this story once about a guy who ordered a bucket from KFC and got a rabbit instead of chicken. Apparently he like sued for a gajillion dollars and used the money to buy an animal farm and now he's got stock in like the biggest meat suppliers in the country. Isn't it kind of ironic and really sick how that works sometimes? I mean, what is the world coming to when-" I tuned Alice out - it was getting easier. I tried to pretend I didn't notice the way Emmet and Rosalie were wrapped around each other. Holy crap, I could see their tongues! Bella sat in the same position, her shoulders slouched and her hands spread flat on the table, her eyes focused on a seemingly random spot on Emmet's tray. I debated starting another conversation with her, but just as I turned to her with a topic in mind she got up and slung her bag over her shoulder, leaving the cafeteria without a second glance. The bell rang almost ten minutes later, causing Alice to stop talking and Rosalie and Emmet to disengage from one another.

Emmet, Rosalie and I lingered after Jasper and Alice left, discussing a potential scrabble night for that weekend. I said I'd see, because the thought of spending my weekend, any part of my weekend, in the company of Bella was horrifying.

Rosalie allowed my flimsy promise while Emmet insisted we continue this conversation later. I assured him we would and hurried to biology, hoping to make it before the late bell this time. I wasn't putting on a very good track record at this rate…

But I needn't have worried because when I stepped into the class, no one even turned to look at me. This in and of itself would have shocked me considering new-kid syndrome hadn't had enough time to wear off yet, but more importantly, the attention of the entire class, teacher included, was on the table Bella and I hatefully shared, where Lauren was standing with her fists clenched, tears streaming down her face. And who should be eyeing her with that same bored smile that I now definitely hated, but Bella herself.

"Ladies, please, I'm going to have to ask you to conduct yourselves," the teacher was pleading – no joke, pleading – in a desperate attempt to regain control of the class.

Bella turned to him, and her smile became slightly wider. "I have no problem conducting myself, Mr. Banner. It seems that Lauren is overly emotional though. Maybe she could use some cooling off."

"You fucking bitch!" And she launched herself at Bella at almost the same instant that the rest of the class lunged itself across the room to gather around the catfight.

The teacher stood for a series of delayed moments with his mouth hanging open, and even over the shouted encouragements of the rest of the class and Lauren screaming obscenities I could hear her, clear as a bell, laughing. Lauren suddenly screeched and I moved to the crowd without thinking. Pushing my way through the spectators, I finally made my way to the two girls and almost stopped and gaped at them. Bella had Lauren by the hair at the nape of her neck, and was pressing her face against the linoleum floor. Lauren was sporting a blooming bruise on her right cheek, and Bella's face was covered in shallow scratch marks. But I didn't gape. I reached out and grabbed Bella by the shoulder, and she let out an indignant yelp as I pulled her off of Lauren and restrained her against my chest. And damn, did she put up a fight. You wouldn't think such a small girl would have so much fight.

She suddenly leaned her head down and bit my arm, sinking her pointy little teeth past the cotton of my hoodie and actually breaking skin. I felt the sharp sting of it and hissed at her, but refused to let go. So did she. Lauren was sitting on her knees, sobbing into her hands as a girl rushed forward and patted her back, encouraging her to get up. When Lauren stood and saw Bella, still with her teeth sunk into my arm, she glared and pointed a shaking finger at her. "I'm going to kill you, you freak! You better watch it! You're so fucking dead!" The girl supporting her blanched and seemed to regret her decision to come to Lauren's aid, opting to quickly lead her out of the room. As she did, Bella finally released my arm, and I groaned in relief.

"If I were you, Lauren, I'd move."

Lauren turned to look at Bella over her shoulder, and there was none of the former rage or the indignation I'd seen in her face before. Her eyes were naked fear.

"All right, that's enough of that! Everybody get back to your seats!" Apparently, the teacher had found his voice. He looked at me and his eyes seemed to slide right over Bella, who had gone very still in my grasp. "That'll do, Mr. Cullen."

I quickly released Bella and mumbled an insincere apology as I went back to the doorway to retrieve my bag from where I'd dropped it. Why I got myself into these situations I couldn't tell.

Sitting beside Bella, I concentrated on not checking the extent of the damage caused to my arm. It was quite painful, and I was furious. Like this was the perfect conclusion to the day in Hell spent in the company of Bella fucking Swan. What suicidal insanity could possibly possess me to spend time with her outside of school? The teacher was going over his lecture with a high-pitched uncomfortable tenor in his voice, and I frowned in disbelief. It absolutely floored me that she had gotten away with it without so much as a warning. I watched in sick fascination as she thumbed the scratches on her face. Most of them were faded, but a few angry red lines remained on her left cheek, and she smiled to herself as she ran her fingers over them. I tore my eyes away to stare at the teacher, reading quickly through his lecture notes as though hoping to get the class over and done with as soon as possible. He didn't even look at her. Didn't even give her a stern warning. Didn't even acknowledge that she had been in a fight.

Halfway through the class the girl that had led Lauren away was back, excusing herself to pick up Lauren's bag and take it to her in the office. I saw a boy near the front, Mike something, catch her eye and mouth something to her, a question, and she shook her head slightly in response. He pursed his lips and clenched his fists, shooting a glance towards Bella. She had been watching the exchange, and she grinned at him in a way I hated even more than the bored smile. She showed him her teeth, and he quickly looked away. With the smile fixed in place, she raised her hand and interrupted the teacher without waiting for him to pause and call on her. "Mr. Banner, may I please be excused to clean myself up in the lady's room?"

The teacher nodded quickly, motioning towards the door while he continued reading. Bella slid out of her seat and brushed past me, swaggering confidently to the door without a hall pass. After this display, I doubted she ever needed one.

"Cullen."

I turned in my seat in response to hearing my name, and a pimply-faced short kid with glasses sitting behind me motioned at me to lean in closer. Something Yorkie.

"Did you know Lauren?" he whispered furiously, his eyes darting to the door and back to me.

I made a face. The way he asked in the past tense made me worry the girl had been taken away never to be seen or heard from again. It would be fitting with the absurdity of this town so far. In response to the question, however, I gave a half-shrug. "She and I have a class together."

"So you're not like her friend or anything? You have a crush on her maybe? Or she's like a cousin or something?"

I frowned in confusion. Where was this line of questions coming from? And where was it leading? I shook my head no.

The guy swallowed and narrowed his eyes at me, as though to convey a very intense importance to his next words. "Next time, unless it's your soul mate she's got a fistful of, I suggest you let Bella do what Bella does." He swallowed and ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Seriously, Cullen, consider it the best advice ever. Don't give Bella Swan a reason to hate you."

My frown deepened as he quickly slid back to his seat and stared at the teacher with an intensity I knew couldn't be owed to paying attention to what he was actually saying. I turned back to the front of the class, shaking my head at the melodramatic exchange that had just taken place. What was with this town?

It was then I noticed Bella, standing in the doorway, staring at me, her fingers caressing the scars on her face. She wasn't smiling now, neither the bored smile or the threatening grin. She was staring at me with a look of such intense hatred, I honestly wondered if I had done something seriously wrong to her. I felt like a deer caught in the headlight of that glare, and frozen, I couldn't look away or even arrange my face into an expression that would be appropriate in response to such blatant loathing. As she walked past me to her seat, she snarled at me, actually snarled, turning to the front of the class, hunching her shoulders and letting a curtain of her hair hide her face from my view. Stunned, I looked away, fingering the pages of my book as an excuse to focus on something else, anything but her. What was wrong with this girl? What was her problem with me? She didn't even know me, and she was just going to be glaring at me like I'd run over her mother?

I thought of the retarding water theory but dismissed it. Whatever was wrong with the citizens of Forks, it was on a whole different level than what was wrong with Bella Swan.