Let the Games Begin
A/N: Alright, peeps, I'm back with another update. Hope you enjoy this one. And thank you to everyone who reviewed. They all make me smile. :)
Chapter 4
I Never Said I Was Rational
(BPOV)
Worst fucking day of my life.
Oh, you might think I'm being overly dramatic, but if you had the day that I just had, then you would be having the exact same pity party that I'm having.
Let's start at the beginning shall we.
Breakfast was alright, I suppose… if you cut out the fact that now that everyone knew that Edward Masen had taken a liking to the new girl who also happened to spit on him and then make his ass meet the floor… again.
After that debacle, we all had classes. When I finally pulled out my schedule for the semester, I groaned. This year was going to suck major monkey balls, that's for fucking sure.
And my lame excuse for a schedule is as follows:
1. Pre-Cal - Mr. Verner
2. AP History 11 - Mr. Hans
3. AP Lit 11 - Mrs. Young
4. Spanish III - Ms. Goff
Lunch
5. AP Bio - Mr. Banner
6. (and I shit you not) Etiquette - Mrs. Hugenstien
7. Music III - Mr. Sharp
Alice led me to my first class. Rose, Em, and Jasper had to leave to make it to their classes on time. Most boring class on the face of the planet. Seeing as I already hated math with a burning passion, I knew then that I wasn't going to like Mr. Verner just for the principal of the thing. And then add on the fact that he has this heinously thick German accent that I couldn't understand at all and then you'll understand why this class was going to be a no-go.
When that was over, I wandered around until I found the history building (seeing as I couldn't find Alice, Rose, Jasper, or Emmett to help me find it). My wandering made me late, which made Mr. Hans (seriously, this dude made the crypt keeper look like a gabbering baby) hate me from the get-go. After an hour of his beady-eyed glare and monotone voice, I sighed in relief when the bell rang for third period.
Alice found me after history. "I'm so, so, so, so sorry that none of us found you after first period."
"It's alright, Alice. It's no big deal. I've been late to a class before, it won't kill me," I said, trying to calm her down.
She took a deep breath and calmed herself before pulling a complete 180 on me. A bright smile spread across her face. "Come on, we've got to get to Lit." She dragged me off towards the English building.
We were the last ones to enter the room right before the bell rang. Alice gave me a smile before skipping off to sit next to Jasper who gave me a small smile and a wave. I forced a smile out for him and then looked around the room for an empty seat. There was only one seat left near the back of the class, so I started weaving in and out of desks and stepping over purses and backpacks trying to get to the back.
I was looking at the floor, trying to make sure that I wouldn't make a fool of myself by tripping and then giving the entire male population a peepshow when my skirt flew up like it undoubtedly would, so I didn't notice who was sitting around the desk. I looked up when the walkway became clear and nearly fell flat on my face in shock.
Sitting in the desk next to mine was none other than Edward Masen. He wasn't looking at me, in fact, he was reading. I found this kind of odd considering the fact that he was sitting with some of the other guys that I had seen him with earlier. I would have thought that he was more of a social butterfly than a bookworm, but I had to admit that the scholarly look worked for him. His eyes were trained on the book in concentration and the tip of his tongue was sticking out the slightest bit. It was beyond adorable. His hair was falling into his eyes and he had to constantly brushed it out of the way. He shifted a little and I saw a flash of the cover and nearly died right there.
He was reading Shakespeare. Othello to be exact. That definitely was not on the reading list for this class, so that meant that he was reading it just for shits and giggles.
Not that I could ever see Edward giggling… but I digress.
He was sexy and smart. Fuck me…
Bella, for the love of God, stop with all of the mooning and drooling and shit! He's just a guy! You don't need a guy right now! He's probably just like the rest of them anyway. A stuck up rich boy with an ego the size of an elephant's ass and a personality to match said pachyderm's rear.
Now that I thought about it, Edward seemed just a little too perfect for his own good. He was sexy (obviously) and had no problem with the ladies, but even then he only gave them passing glances and never looked below their necks, which made him a gentleman, something that I haven't seen in quite some time. But even with his gentlemanly ways, he exuded this confidence that nearly sent me over the edge (I loved a guy that was confident without being cocky). He was smart. I mean what normal teenage guy reads one of Shakespeare's tragedies for fun? Only smart kids do that kind of shit.
I slowly made it to my seat and sat down. Edward didn't look up. He just kept reading until one of the guys nudged his shoulder. "May I help you?" he asked, his eyes never leaving his book. Ugh, and he even used proper grammar.
"Did you hear Coach say that the game against Oceanic Prep has been moved up a week?" one of the guys asked.
Edward's head snapped up and looked at the guy in shock. "What? Are you shitting me? You can't be serious?" The other guy nodded. "That means we only have three weeks to get ready. Fuck!" He snapped his book closed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. What I wouldn't give to be that hand… Stop it!
And of course he was athletic. I mean, with a body like that how could he not be. And most girls would be turned off when a guy cusses like a sailor. Well, let's just say that I have a thing for seamen.
It's official. Edward Masen is perfect.
And the exact opposite of the kind of guy that I usually went for. Normally, I would go for the guy that my parents would hate. Rocker dudes with tattoos and motorcycles. Emo guys that looked like they would jump you if you even looked at them wrong. Not smart, handsome athletes that could rock a polo or a sweater vest and not look like a 90210 reject.
And the fact that I was so drawn to this guy was pissing me off. I didn't want a guy that my parents would approve of. I didn't want someone that would make them think that I was going to change who I am just so that I could impress some stuffy old morons that grew up with a silver spoon shoved up their asses.
Sure, he had a fuckhot body. And that smile of his made my lady parts melt. And his voice turned me into goo. And his eyes made me swoon with one glance. And his lips were a soft as pillows and he tasted like candy. And-
Stop right there, Isabella Marie Swan! You aren't getting anywhere with this.
I took a deep breath, trying to regain my bearings before I pulled out my notebook for class. I had to admit that I was excited for this class. I had always loved Lit, and I was glad that the reading list for the class was at least a little bit challenging.
"Nice ass," someone said from behind me. I was bent over, looking in my bag for a pen. I ignored the comment and continued looking for my pen. But then I felt a hand on my ass and they gave it a squeeze. I froze. I felt my anger bubbling up inside me. I turned around slowly to find none other than Mike Newton, the idiot from yesterday. Apparently he had gotten stupider overnight since he had the audacity to touch me after the lecture I gave him.
He had the nerve to smirk at me. Well, if he wanted to play it that way…
I gave him a small, fake smile of my own before cocking my arm back. A fist connected with his face and he fell to the ground, yelping like a cat that just had its tail stepped on. There was blood running down his face and tears in his eyes.
Wait, that wasn't my fist… I looked up and saw Edward glaring down at Newton, and he looked pissed. "Didn't your mother teach you any manners, Newton? You can't go around grabbing girls' asses just because you're feeling horny." Mike whimpered and scrambled to his feet and scurried out the door, leaving behind a classroom of very shocked classmates behind. Apparently, Mike and Edward didn't get along.
My eyes were widened in utter shock. I had known Edward a total of maybe fourteen hours and he was already throwing punches for me. A part of me was swooning because honestly, what girl didn't want a guy around who was willing to deck a douche or twenty if they got a little handsy. Another more irrational part of me was angry that Edward had stepped in. I had been doing just fine here without his help.
Edward met my eyes. A small smile was on his face, but quickly disappeared when he saw my glaring expression. "Sorry about that," he said sheepishly.
Normally, when I was thinking straight and I wasn't completely intoxicated by his mere presence, I would have accepted his apology with little to no backtalk, but I wasn't thinking clearly, so I snapped at him. "I could have handled that on my own."
He looked slightly taken aback, like no one had ever talked to him like that before, before his face clouded over. His eyes darkened and a slight scowl crossed his face. "Excuse me?" he said, his arms crossing over his chest. Fuck if he wasn't sexy as hell when he was angry… Gah! Stop it!
"I can take care of myself and I don't need guys with a superiority complex coming to my rescue every time someone touches me," I snapped at him.
His scowl grew. "A little gratitude would be nice," he growled. Holy fuck on toast… Gah!
"Why should I be grateful for something I didn't want or need in the first place?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Because that's what normal people do. They say 'thank you' when someone stops an idiotic son of a bitch from grabbing their ass."
"I can take care of myself," I said again. I glared up at him and sent it right back.
"Fine!" Edward yelled.
"Fine!" I yelled back.
"Fine!" We both yelled at the same time. We were both breathing heavily then. I huffed and fell back into my seat, not wanting to look at him anymore. Looking at him only made me want to yell at him some more. I heard him sit back down as well.
What is he doing to me? No one has ever made me feel this way before. I'm acting like some hormone-crazed bipolar lunatic that may or may not have forgotten to take her meds on a regular basis.
I finally looked up to find the entire class turned around in their seats, staring at the two of us like we had declared that we were going to start a nudist colony in our Lit class. Complete and utter shock was covering their faces. Some were staring at me. Others at him. I shot a glare in the direction of anyone who dared make eye contact with me and they all turned around quickly once they got some of the bitch brow.
Finally the teacher came into the room. What could she have possibly been doing to miss our epic shouting match? She introduced herself as Mrs. Young. Her name was appropriate. She looked young and she seemed like she was actually excited to teach this class. Maybe this class won't be a total waste. Even though it also included dealing with Newton and all of his douchebaggery and Edward Masen, the newly found bane of my existence.
We muddled through the whole first day bullshit that every teacher had to go through as I continued to ignore the piercing glare that I felt on the side of my face that was coming from Edward. As soon as the bell rang, I jumped up and ran out of the classroom, not wanting to deal with any more of the stares that were coming my way.
I wandered across campus until I found the foreign language building. Thankfully, I wasn't late as I slid into my Spanish class. A few people were whispering and shooting glances my way, but I couldn't be sure why. I didn't know if they had heard about my small explosion with Edward or if it was still the whole new girl thing. I ignored them, as usual, and tried to pay attention to my Spanish teacher in the hopes that it would take my mind off of all the other crap that had happened earlier. But considering the fact that it was the first day of school, the teacher had little to say, so I was stuck staring at the clock for about twenty minutes until class let out for lunch.
When the bell finally rang, I left and found Alice waiting for me. She didn't mention what happened in Lit between me and her cousin, so I wasn't about to. She asked me about my day so far and I told her about the mind numbing quality of most of my classes. She laughed and agreed as we entered the cafeteria. We moved our way through the line and then over to the table that we had sat at during breakfast.
"So, Baby Bell," Emmett asked as I sat down. "What's this I hear about you going all apeshit on my baby cousin?"
I was shocked that he had heard about it so quickly, but I kept my shock of my face. "He annoyed me," I said calmly as I unscrewed the lid of my Dr. Pepper. I could feel my anger bubbling up again, but I tried to keep it down. "And I did not go 'apeshit' on him as you so eloquently put it. I just told him how I felt in a calm and concise manner."
Jasper snorted from next to Alice. "If having a shouting match in the middle of Lit is you when you're calm, then I don't want to ever see you pissed." I shot him a glare that only made him snicker.
I huffed. "As I told him during Lit, I can take care of myself and I don't need anyone swooping in to save me."
"I have no doubt about that," Rose muttered under her breath.
"Can we just drop this please?" I asked. "I really don't want to have to relive that again."
They nodded, but Alice jumped in. "It's just that we've never seen Edward fly off the handle like that. He never loses his temper. Well, except for when Emmett and Jasper do something to piss him off, but that's a completely different story," she added as an afterthought. Emmett and Jasper smirked devilishly at each other and pounded fists. Those boys were bound to be trouble.
"Good to know," I drawled before turning back to my food.
We dropped the subject even though I know that they wanted more details. I wasn't about to tell his family that my lady parts found his rockin' bod and come hither stare sexy as hell, so my mouth was staying shut.
I felt a tap on my shoulder near the end of lunch. I turned around and saw Tanya staring down at me. Her cronies were standing behind her. "Isabella, can I have a word with you?" she ground out. I didn't like the way she said Isabella (or the fact that she called me Isabella in the first place),so I knew something was about to go down.
I cocked an eyebrow at her. "I don't know. Can you?"
Tanya growled. "May I have a word with you?" Well, she wasn't a complete moron.
I spun around in my seat and gave her a bland smile. "Sure, Tanya. Why not?"
"Alone."
I pursed my lips and clicked my tongue. "I'm not really feeling the whole moving thing right now. How about you just say what you wanna say and then we'll move on. Okay? Okay."
She scowled, but didn't walk away. "Fine." She bent down, her face a few inches from mine. "Stay away from my Eddie. He is mine. He's going to be homecoming and prom king with me, and you aren't going to get in the way of what I want. Seriously-"
What the fuck is she rambling about? I held up a hand. "I'm going to stop you right there. First, you need to back the fuck up." I pushed her away with a finger. "Second, have your parents taught you nothing? People aren't property, even if they are chauvinistic pigs." I heard the group snort from behind me. "And third, you can have him. I don't want anything to do with him." Alright, the last one was a lie, but it pissed me off that it was a lie.
Tanya scoffed in indignation. "You little bitch! How dare you say that about Eddie!"
"Tanya, shut the fuck up!"
Everyone turned around to find a slightly - and by slightly, I mean very - pissed off Edward. He was glaring at the both of us. "Tanya, we went out once. Once during freshman year. I am not your boyfriend. I never have been. Drop the fucking homecoming and prom king shit too. I don't give a shit about it. And for the love of fuck, stop calling me Eddie!" There he goes again with the dirty words…
Tanya stared at him in shock. "But Eddie-"
Edward growled and she stopped talking immediately. Good God, that is sexy- stop it!
I pushed down the tingling that was running up and down my body at the mere sight of him. It only made me more angry that the tingling was there in the first place. "As much as I enjoy this soap opera-esque scene we've got going on here, I'm gonna go." I nodded in the direction of the door and got up, gathering my stuff as I did. "Tanya, it was lovely speaking to you." I gave her my sweetest smile. The smile slipped from my face when I looked over at Edward, who was scowling and glaring at me. I matched his scowl with my own. I gave my best Tanya impression and flipped my hair over my shoulder and walked towards the door without acknowledging him. "See you guys later," I called to the rest of the group. The bell rang as soon as I walked out the doors. Perfect timing.
I headed towards the bio building and found my classroom. The teacher wasn't in the room, but he had instructions written on the board.
Wait to be seated. I will assign you your lab partners.
No, you cannot switch seats. Don't complain.
Well, he seems like a cheery person. I sighed and leaned against the wall as other students started showing up. I wasn't really paying attention to who was walking through the door, so I didn't notice that the teacher had walked in until the bell rang.
"Alright, everyone. Welcome to AP Biology. Sit with the person that I've assigned you and then we'll get started," the teacher said, his voice monotone. Lovely.
He started calling off names. "Isabella Swan and Edward Masen."
My head snapped up and my eyes shot around the room and sure enough, there he was. Edward was scowling at me again. I'm beginning to think he doesn't like me that much anymore. Good, it'll help me get over this stupid infatuation I have with him.
I glared back, but went to sit down at the table we were assigned. Edward trudged over as well and threw his stuff down and sat down. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the front of the class, avoiding eye contact with me. Yeah, keep it up. You're only making this easier for me.
It's easier to hate assholes than nice guys. And Edward is slowly making his way toward asshole and farther away from nice guy. From what I've seen so far, he's pretty good at both.
We didn't say a word to or look at each other for the rest of the class period. When Mr. Banner, our teacher, told us that we had the rest of the period free when he had finished with his first day spiel, Edward got up and headed over to one of the other lab tables where his friends were sitting.
I pulled out my book and started reading, hoping to leave my horrible day behind while I read about fictional nice guys that I wouldn't mind falling for. Unlike someone…
I sighed in relief when the bell rang and headed towards the auditorium where our "etiquette" class was being held. Apparently, all the juniors had to take this class. Why we had to take it, I had no idea. Most of us grew up in households where etiquette was something that was taught from birth, we knew how to act in public. Even if a choice few refuse to use those teachings. I am one of them. And proud of it.
I threw myself down in one of the chairs. A few minutes later Alice and Jasper showed up and sat with me.
"I think God's trying to smite me," I said, letting my head rest on the back of the seat as I stared at the ceiling.
"And why is that?" Alice asked, humoring me.
"He's my bio partner. He was about as happy as I was about it. He just glared at the board all period until Banner let us talk."
Alice and Jasper chuckled. "What?"
"Oh, nothing," Alice sang. Whatever. I didn't want to deal with cryptic giggling right now anyway.
"Jazz," his voice called. Jasper turned towards Edward as he walked down the aisle of the auditorium.
"Hey, man. What's up?"
"Coach extended practice an hour for the rest of the week," Edward said. "Spread the word, will ya?"
Jasper groaned. "Really?" Edward nodded. "Damn. Yeah, I'll let the rest of the guys know," Jasper sighed.
"Thanks, man," Edward said. He turned to Alice. "Alice." She gave him a nod. His eyes flickered over to me and a scowl crept onto his face again. I gave it right back to him. He rolled his eyes and headed towards the front of the room where his friends were sitting.
"Edward is the captain of the soccer and baseball teams. He's really good," Alice explained.
He's the man in charge too? Fuck my life. "Goody for him," I drawled. Alice snickered.
Once everyone was in their seats, a stick of a lady came onto the stage. She was older with dull brown hair that was pulled into an extremely tight bun at the nape of her neck. He was wearing cat-eyed glasses that made her look kind of scary. Her outfit was that of a schoolmarm and the scowl on her face was just downright frightening.
"Hush, children!" she barked in a low voice that did not match her body type whatsoever. Everyone got really quiet, really fast. "I am Mrs. Hugenstien. I will be teaching you all about how to conduct yourselves in public like the young ladies and gentlemen that you are." I almost snorted. I was the farthest thing from a lady and I can say the same about some of the others in here.
"I want boys on the left, girls on the right. Move it, children!" Mrs. Hugenstien snapped.
The guys moved to the left side of the auditorium and girls to the right. "Young ladies and gentlemen do not interact together in public unless told that they can do so." What the fuck is this woman going on about? This isn't the nineteenth century.
"You will all sit this way until we start the unit on how to interact with the opposite gender," Hugenstien said.
The rest of the class was Mrs. Hugenstien going on about how the youth of this day in age were "so disrespectful" and knew nothing about how to behave like "proper young ladies and gentlemen." What a bunch of bullshit.
When the bell finally rang, everyone jumped from their seats and ran towards the exit. I had to agree with the student body on this one. When Alice and I were outside, we met up again with Jasper.
"What is that woman on? Doesn't she know that this is the twenty-first century, not the nineteenth?" I ranted.
"I have no idea," Alice said, rolling her eyes. "She's known as 'The Nazi.' I think it fits. What was up with splitting up the guys and the girls? That is so not cool. I missed my Jazzy." She turned to Jasper and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled sweetly down at her and kiss the top of her head. They really were adorable.
"I'll see you guys later," I told them. They waved and pointed me in the direction of the music building. They both had small smirks on their faces when I left. Weird. I sighed. One more period until freedom.
I headed into the music building and into the main room. A genuine smile slipped onto my face for the first time today when I walked into the room. The sight of the multitude of instruments lying around the room made me feel at peace. I sighed and sat down at the back of the classroom. I've had enough people staring at me for today. Sitting in the back made it harder for them to stare without being obvious.
People wandered in and sat down. They gave me odd looks. They were probably freaked out by the smile on my face. It was a new look for them.
And the smile promptly disappeared when the bane of my existence walked through the door. Why, God? Why? Why are you doing this to me?
Not only is he beautiful, charming, sexy, smart, and athletic, he's musical too? You have got to be kidding me?
Maybe he sucks… That's stupid. Of course he doesn't suck. Then he wouldn't be perfect.
Edward spotted me and his signature (well, it's signature now seeing as it's his only facial expression when he's around me) scowl fell into place. He stomped off to a seat near the front of the room, not sending me another glance.
The bell rang a few minutes later and a tall man wearing a colorful scarf and a monocle came into the room. "Good afternoon, my loves," he chirped in a high falsetto voice. He was definitely batting for the other team. "Welcome back. So I hear we have a new student in our midst today." His eyes locked with mine. "Will you introduce yourself please?"
Just when I thought I was going to get through the entire day without having to do this, my last teacher has to. Ugh. I stood up reluctantly as they all turned around the stare (except for Edward who was glaring at the front of the room). "I'm Bella Swan. I'm from Seattle." I wasn't about to open up to these people. That was all they were getting.
"And what are your musical capabilities?" Mr. Sharp, I think that was his name, asked.
"Vocals and a bit of piano," I said.
Mr. Sharp looked pleased. "It's nice to have another vocalist around. Thank you, Bella." I gave him a nod and sat back down.
For the rest of the period, Mr. Sharp excitedly (and flamboyantly) described what we were going to be doing for the year. "As you all know, we have a performance at the end of each quarter. This quarter's theme is duets, so I will be assigning pairs later. I just wanted to give you all a heads up." Lovely. I get to be paired with one of the stuck-up snobs. Goody for me.
The bell rang a little while later and my first day was finally over. Thank God. I gathered my stuff and quickly ran out the door.
"Bella!" I heard someone call from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and nearly froze where I stood. He was walking towards me. I wasn't going to deal with this right now. I picked up my pace, ignoring him as I sped towards the dorms. He finally got the hint that I didn't want to talk when I nearly ran through the front door of my dorm. I snuck a peek out the window next to the door and I saw him sigh in frustration before heading off to wherever he was going. I sighed in relief and headed upstairs.
And now here I am, laying on my bed with a pillow over my face, just hoping that all of this a dream and I'm going to wake up in Seattle again.
I pinched myself to see if I was awake. I was. And that hurt like a son of bitch.
I groaned and rolled over. And off my bed. I grunted as I hit the floor. Smooth, Bella. Real smooth. I got up slowly and walked over to my closet to grab some sweats and a tee shirt. I didn't want to be in this uniform any longer. I got dressed quickly and crawled into bed. I just wanted to go to sleep and forget today even happened.
I closed my eyes and didn't open them again until Alice woke me up again the next morning.
A/N: Alright, guys, hope you liked that. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. And I will admit that I actually laughed a little as I was writing it. I know, it's lame to laugh at your own jokes, but I'm alright with that.
Reviews are better than smart, handsome athletes that can totally rock a sweater vest.
Laters,
Cat :)