Let the Games Begin

A/N: Hey, peeps. I'm back. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I really like to hear from everyone. And if any of you are getting PMs from the username DarkGoldenEyedAngel, that's me. I have two accounts on Fanfiction and sometimes I forget which one I'm logged in under at the time. Just wanted to let ya'll know. Alright, I'm done rambling. Read on.

Chapter 5
The Universe is Definitely Out to Get Me

(EPOV)

I am so fucking confused right now.

And to top it all off, today sucked ass. And I'm talking fucking huge amounts of ass.

Sure, it started off alright. I woke up, did my usual thing. Shower, get dressed, go get breakfast. I met up with the guys at our usual table. Most of my friends were on the soccer or baseball teams with me, including Jazz and Emmett.

While Jazz and Emmett were essentially my brothers/best friends, they were always sitting with Alice and Rose (who happened to act like the sisters that I only sometimes wanted), and I didn't want to subject myself to their coupliness all day long. So I sat with the guys. We were a ragtag group to say the least, essentially the Rat Pack of St. Alex's.

First, there was Seth Clearwater, my right hand man and one of the preppiest guys that you've ever seen. He was probably one of my closest friends and I've known him the longest besides Jazz and Em. He was about my height, tanned skin, short black hair. While he was an awesome friend, he loved to rag on me about the "mating pheromone" that I supposedly sent out to attract all of the "ladies." I would always shoot back with some comment about his boat shoes and shorts with the ducks on them. That shut him up, but he continued to wear them. To each his own, I guess.

Then there was Sam Uley, Ian McCormick, and Jared Cooper.

Sam was huge, almost as big as Emmett. Senior. Longish black hair, built like a tank, and probably the one of the nicest and shyest guys you will ever meet. He wasn't very outspoken, but he attracted a fair amount of attention from the ladies, even though he's dating Emily West, a quiet senior girl who was perfect for him. That sounded very chick-like. Ugh.

Anyway… moving on.

Ian was the dramatic one of the group. A little shorter than me, blonde hair, blue eyes, and the quintessential drama freak. When he wasn't playing soccer, he was on the stage acting out some scene. Even when he isn't backstage with his fellow actors and actresses, he gossiped like an old church woman. If there was something stirring up somewhere on campus, Ian was the first to know about it. And we were the first to hear it from him.

And Jared was your typical surfer dude. A little taller than me, brown floppy hair, blue eyes. He played baseball with me and he got me into surfing. Which I am pretty good at, if I do say so myself… but I digress. Whilethe rest of us didn't exactly enjoy the attention we got from the multitudes of girls that drooled over us, he didn't seem to mind too much. He was a self-proclaimed man-whore and he was quite proud of this. Be that as it may, he didn't look twice at any of the girls at St. Alexander's. They were all fake… and kind of stupid, now that I think about it. He calls himself a "classy" man-whore with some "standards." Whatever gets you through the day, man.

And then you have me. Edward Anthony Masen III. If anything, I would call myself the rocker of the group. My wardrobe consisted of ratty jeans, Chucks, and rocker tees. I was constantly messing around with my guitar or piano or whatever instrument I could get my hands on. I loved any sort of rock music. Classic, punk, alternative, hard, metal. Rock was my life.

But most people didn't know this side of me. They only saw the soccer and baseball captain who also happened to be the junior class president and the top of my class. The guy who could get any girl he wanted and used this to his advantage to get with any girl. Basically, they were calling me the man-whore, when I wasn't. I'm an one woman kind of guy. Yeah, I dated a little bit when I first got to St. Alexander's, but after the first few fiascos, I just stopped trying. But that didn't stop people from gossiping about me. I guess they could be saying worse things, but none of it was true.

This is basically us in a nutshell. The prep, the loner, the drama king, the man-whore, and the closet rocker. Most people don't understand why we hang out together and, to be honest, I don't understand it either, but we mesh, so we just go along with it.

I grabbed a cup of coffee and a few strips of bacon from the line and headed over to my usual table. I wasn't much of a morning person and everyone knew it. People would throw smiles and waves my way as I approached my table, but they wouldn't try to come up to me. One of the small perks of being "Mr. Popular" I guess.

I reached my table and set my bag down and plopped into my usual chair. "Not get enough beauty rest, Mr. President?" Seth taunted playfully. I shot him a glare and a grunt, before turning my attention back to my coffee. Nectar of the gods, that's all I'm going to say about that.

Sam, Ian, and Jared showed up a little while later. "So where's your ladylove today, Eddie?" Ian asked, pulling out his chair and plopping into it.

I glared at him over the rim of my coffee cup. I despised the name Eddie or any other variation of my name. It made me sound like a horse.

I raised an eyebrow at him. He sighed. "Fine. Where's your ladylove today, Edward? God, so touchy."

I ignored his last comment. "What 'ladylove'? I have no idea about who you're talking about?"

"That girl that you were macking on last night at the party," Jared explained.

Oh, her. Bella Swan. "Oh, right," I said, looking down at my coffee. "I don't know where she is. I'm not her keeper. And she's not my 'ladylove'. It was just a dare."

They all looked at each other before they all busted out laughing. "If that was 'just a dare', then I don't want to know what it looks like if you actually like the girl. It would be like watching a live porno," Seth said, cringing a little.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Classy, Seth. And don't even tell me that you wouldn't enjoy the whole porno thing, you fucker. Because you would."

He looked thoughtful for a second and then nodded his head in agreement. "You're right, as usual, Oh Wise One."

I rolled my eyes again and flipped him the bird. "Bite me," I muttered.

"Gladly," a voice said from behind me. I whipped my head around to find Tanya standing there in all her slutty glory. Her uniform skirt was hiked up to her ass and her shirt was insanely tight, showing off her surgically enhanced chest. I held in a shudder when she ran her hand over my back.

Tanya was the only one stupid enough to actually approach me in the mornings. If I wanted to talk to you, then I would find you.

"Hey, Eddie," she breathed into my ear. Again with the name…

"Tanya," I ground out. I grabbed her hand and pulled it off my body. "What did I tell you about touching me?"

She just gave me a blank stare. I sighed in exasperation. "Let me remind you. Don't. You lost that privilege when you turned into a psychotic bitch."

She scoffed and stormed off. I let loose that shudder that I had been holding in. "Great, now I have to go sanitize myself before class," I grumbled.

The guys just laughed. I glared at them. "Laugh it up, dickwads. I might let it slip that you're all interested in her pack of walking STDs. You won't be laughing when their rubbing their nasty asses all over you." That shut them up really quick. If that rumor started going around, we would never get rid of them.

Sam was the one to change the subject. "Don't look now, but your lady has decided to grace us with her presence."

I looked over at the doors and saw Bella walking with Alice. She looked just as pissed off at the world as I felt. She definitely wasn't a morning person. Something we had in common.

But despite her glaring expression, she looked beautiful. She even managed to make that dull school uniform look good. I couldn't help but notice the little accents that she had added to it. Her checkered knee-highs and scuffed up Chucks made her look like some sort of Catholic school girl/rocker chick hybrid. Her hair was thrown up into a messy ponytail, blue and brown tendrils falling around her face. Honestly she looked like she didn't give a shit about her appearance. And I liked it. It was refreshing.

"Aww, Eddie's smitten with the new girl," Seth cooed.

I shot him a glare. "I am not." But I can't stop thinking about her and she could be my soul-mate.

Great, now I really do sound like a chick. I needed to check and see if my dick had inverted and I start growing a pair of ovaries.

They all gave me dubious looks. "Whatever," was my brilliant response as I pushed away from the table. I grabbed my blazer and bag and headed over to my family's table.

Bella was sitting there, clinging to a large cup of coffee like it was her lifeline. That's another thing we have in common.

I looked down to make sure that I hadn't grown a pair of boobs overnight. This girly emotional shit is screwing with my head.

I spent the rest of breakfast with my family and Bella, laying the charm on as thick as I could without looking like a complete douche. As usual, however, whenever I was around my family, I found myself in some sort of embarrassing situation. Today it involved me nearly covered in coffee and falling backwards out of a chair onto the floor.

Apparently Bella was shocked that Alice, Emmett, and I were related. They obviously hadn't told her that small fact. She spit her coffee out of her mouth and nearly coated me in it. It shocked the crap out of me so I fell backwards out of my chair and fell head first onto the floor. That hurt like a bitch, by the way.

Bella showed another hidden side of her when she raced to my side and asked if I was alright. She was sweet and so fucking adorable when she was embarrassed.

I played it off as cool as I could and got out of the cafeteria as fast as possible.

I headed to my first class, shaking off the rush of feeling that I got when Bella was near me. My schedule was pretty routine for me. AP History, Spanish III, AP Lit, Pre-Cal, Lunch, AP Bio, Etiquette (Lame, I know, right?), and Music III. I had soccer practice after that for two hours.

My first two classes were boring as shit and would probably stay that way for the rest of the year.

All throughout those classes, my mind kept wandering back to Bella. She was the first girl that had ever caught my attention and held it for more than five minutes. I kept thinking about the kiss that she and I had shared the night before and how it was the best kiss of my entire life. I thought about her brown eyes and how they sparkled with mischief, like her mind was constantly thinking of ways to cause a little bit of trouble. I thought about her I-don't-give-a-shit-about-what-you-think attitude and how it was probably one of the hottest things I had ever seen.

For the first time in my life I thought I had found someone that could see the real me, not the Mr. Popular mask that everyone else saw.

I made my way over to the English building and found my Lit class, all the while thinking about Bella. I found a seat in the back of the class, not wanting to be the center of attention. I pulled out my book, Othello, while I waited for class to start. I know, what teenage guy reads Shakespeare for fun? I do. I wasn't into today's fluffy teenage fiction that was floating around. I preferred the classics. You know, something with a little depth, not some frilly vampire romance or some shit like that.

Seth and Jared were in this class with me and they sat next to me. They didn't bother me, knowing that when I was reading, I didn't like to be disturbed unless it was for a good reason.

I heard someone sit next to me on my other side, but I didn't bother looking to see who it was. Seth said something about our game against Oceanic Prep had been moved up a week and I instantly began coming up with things we really needed to work on during our now shortened training time before the first game of the season.

There was a scuffle coming from behind me and I turned to find Mike Newton's, the bane of my existence (well, one of them anyway), hand on some girl's ass. That in and of itself pissed me off. You just don't treat a girl like that. When I noticed that it was Bella that he was groping, I was suddenly livid. No one touched her except for me. She was mine.

I couldn't stop that possessive train of thought from developing before I was out of my seat and my fist was connecting with his face in a second's time. I gave him a lecture about manners before he scurried back to whatever hole he came from.

I turned back to Bella to apologize for my behavior and she just flipped out on me.

I knew that she could take care of herself, it was one of the things I liked about her, but whatever happened to chivalry, defending a girl's honor and all that?

My mother would have been appalled at my behavior after Bella's little bitch fit. I yelled back at her, giving it as good as she gave it. If she was going to yell at me, I was going to yell back.

I knew it was irrational, but her little episode pissed me off beyond belief. I had no idea what I did to her. Last night she was probably the coolest girl I had ever met. And this morning she showed me that she did have a caring side to her. And now she was acting like a complete psycho.

And I was confused as all hell too. She showed me that she could be amazingly sweet and adorable. And I knew that she was independent and I liked that in a woman, but what had I done to her to make her go off on me like that? She had been bouncing around in my head all morning long and there was no way for me to get her out. My idiotic, hormone crazed mind even went as far to imagine us together, but that was obviously not a possibility now because she was pissed at me for no reason whatsoever and I was pissed at her for being pissed at me.

This irrational train of thought made it impossible for me to calm down, so I was fuming for the rest of the day.

I tried to confront her during lunch, but she was being attacked by Tanya when I showed up. I had to set Tanya straight before I could deal with Bella, but Bella left before I could even talk to her. And I was left with the entire cafeteria staring at me while I lectured Tanya about personal space and the fact that we were not dating and we never had been. I'll admit that I wasn't one to go off on people, especially girls, but Tanya was the exception and I used a few words with her that would have horrified my mother beyond belief.

The universe obviously decided that today was my day to be punished because it decided to rub the fact that I would never be with Bella in my face. Bella was my lab partner in AP Bio, and she was also in my etiquette class (that was to be expected though considering all of the juniors took it at the same time), and my music class. She wouldn't acknowledge me in any of those classes with anything other than a glare.

Music was supposed to be my safe haven. The one class where I could be myself and work on my one true passion and forget about all of the bad things that happened during the day. But now she was there to constantly remind me that for some reason, she didn't want to be anywhere near me.

After school let out for the day, I tried to catch up with Bella to ask her what her problem was. To maybe find out if all of this was a big misunderstanding and I could maybe have a chance with her. And if not, then get back to focusing on school and music and sports (the things that I had been focusing on before she came here) so that I could forget her and move on. The latter would probably be harder than it sounded if it came to that.

But she ran away from me and hid away in her dorm. I couldn't wait for her to resurface because I had soccer practice and, being captain and all, I couldn't exactly skip practice because of a girl. Coach would probably shit a brick if he found out.

I ran across campus to the locker rooms and ran inside. Everyone else was already there and getting dressed. "We're in black today," Jazz said when I made my way to my locker.

I nodded, trying to catch my breath. Thank God I already had everything I needed here because my brain has been so fried today that I hadn't even thought about my equipment.

"Where've you been?" Jazz asked as he pulled his practice jersey over his head.

"Nowhere. I got caught up after class," I said as I changed out of my uniform and pulled on my practice gear. I sat down to start strapping on my shin guards. Jazz nodded, accepting my excuse, and started putting on the rest of his equipment.

We headed out onto the field after everyone was dressed and went up to Coach Strickland. Coach Strickland definitely lived up to his name. Once the season started, he cracked the whip. We had a strict diet and conditioning routine. And now that our first game of the season has been moved up a week, he was bound to be on our asses a lot more than he normally would be.

Coach wasn't a complete dick all of the time though, just during the season. He was actually one of the most laid back guys I've met. He was young too, only in his mid-thirties, but he knew his stuff when it came to soccer.

"Alright, guys," Coach said, gesturing for us to gather around him. "We've only got three weeks before our game against Oceanic Prep, so get ready for the toughest three weeks of your lives. Mile, go!" He blew his whistle and off we went.

I hung back a little, trying to clear my head so that I could focus on practice and not my completely suckish day. Jazz and Em slowed down until they were in line with me.

"Are you feeling okay, man?" Emmett asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said shortly. I really didn't want to get into this.

They didn't look convinced. "If you're fine, then what was up with you're freak out today in Lit? The last time I saw you do that was when Emmett told the cheerleading squad that you were holding auditions for your next girlfriend."

I shot a glare over at Emmett. "I will get you back for that. Those girls wouldn't leave me alone for weeks." Emmett shrugged and nodded, but he looked pleased with himself and I could have sworn that I heard him snicker under his breath. Fucker.

I turned back to Jasper. "I did not have a 'freak out' as you oh so eloquently put it. She freaked out on me, not the other way around. I just reacted."

Jasper scoffed. "Well, I've never seen you react to anybody like that before. Whatever happened to 'walking away' and 'discussing things with a level head' like you usually do? Flipping out on girls is not something that you do."

He was right. I didn't normally flip out on girls, or anybody for that matter, unless they really deserved it.

"And the whole Newton thing. What was that about? I know he's a dick and everything, but did you really have to punch him?" He just had to keep bringing back the memories.

Emmett looked shocked. "Wait, stop, rewind. You, Mr. Let's-Be-Rational, punched Mike Newton? For what?"

I huffed out a breath in frustration. I really didn't want to get into this now. "He was being a dick. I was tired of his behavior, so I stopped him. End of story."

"But what was he doing?" Emmett pressed.

I wanted to say that the douche was grabbing the girl of my dreams' (well, former dreams now, I guess) ass, but I refrained. "He grabbed some girl's ass and I was tired of his piggish behavior. I punched him. He stopped. Nothing else to tell."

Jasper snorted. "Some girl, my ass. If you want to call Bella Swan 'some girl' then you're delusional. That girl's a pistol if I've ever seen one."

Emmett's eyes widened and looked like they were about to fall out of his head. "Bella Swan? As in the new girl? As in the girl that you had a full on half-naked make-out session with in front of the entire school? That Bella Swan?"

I rolled my eyes at him and let out another huff. This conversation needed to stop now, or I was going to punch him for dragging it out.

"Yes, that Bella Swan. The bipolar lunatic that enjoys launching into massive bitch fits for no apparent reason," I grumbled bitterly. "Ungrateful little…" I started muttering under my breath.

They were both quiet for a second before they both got the same Cheshire cat-like smile on there faces. "Eddie likes the new girl," they sing-songed.

I glared at both of them. "I do not," I ground out. Not anymore anyway.

I picked up my pace and sped past them until I was at the front of the pack. I could hear both of them snickering from behind me.

I was angry at them for bringing all of the crap that happened today back to the front of my mind. I was angry at them for calling me out while the entire team was around us. And I was angry that they were right.

I'm just lying to myself every time I thought about her.

You don't like her. Lie.

She's annoying and not worth your time. Lie.

She's just a distraction. You don't need her. Lie.

The more I thought about it, the more that I wanted to reconcile with her. I don't know what I did, but I wanted to find out and fix it. But with the way she was acting, I doubt that was going to happen anytime soon.

But every time I got near her or even thought about her now, I wanted to rip my hair out in frustration. She made me feel these things that I've never felt before and it was driving me fucking mental.

I raked my hand through my hair as we finished up our laps and headed to the middle of the field to stretch before we started our drills. We started practice, but I wasn't really focusing.

Because Bella fucking Swan had taken residence in my brain and wouldn't leave me alone. It's like the universe sent her here just to screw with my head.

Well, it's working, you fuckwads.

We were doing a basic drill, running down the field, passing the ball back and forth until we got to the end and then we had to shoot. Seth had kicked the ball to be and I was about to pull my foot back to kick the ball when my other foot skidded out from under me on a muddy patch of grass. I missed the ball completely and I landed flat on my back in a puddle of mud.

Fuck you all. I hope you have your livers pecked out by vultures. I cursed under my breath, but I made no move to get off the ground. Today just couldn't get any worse could it.

"Masen!" Coach yelled. "Get off your ass and back in the drill! If you want to sit on your ass, then go join the football team!"

"Yes, sir!" I called. I rolled over and pushed myself off the ground, not caring if I got any dirtier. My eyes flickered over to the other field where the football players were having their practice. They were all giving us dirty looks (Newton included) and the coach was giving Coach the stink eye. Coach didn't even notice, but I heard a few of the guys start to snicker. I forced the smirk from my face and got up.

Now that I was up, all of the guys were looking at me like I had just declared myself a cross dresser with every intention of starting up a drag show in the middle of the field. It's like they've never seen me mess up before.

It's because they haven't ever seen you mess up. Ever. On anything.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that until today, I hadn't ever messed up. (Well, not as monumentally as today.) Whether it was on the field or in the classroom, I looked like the poster child for perfection (even though I was far fucking from it). I hadn't realized how uptight that made me look.

Now is not the time for you to be coming to terms with your flaws, fuckwit. Get it together!

I flicked the dripping mud from my arms and shook my head, flinging as much of the muck off of me as I could. I cracked my neck once, a blank look on my face. I wasn't going to acknowledge the fact that I had made a complete fool out of myself because I was thinking about some stupid little girl.

Of course you were thinking about her, dunce. You never stopped.

I kicked the motionless ball out of the way and looked over at Seth. I motioned for him to kick the ball my way again. He gave me a confused look before kicking it over to me. As soon as it was lined up with my foot, I reared back and kicked it with all of my might, rocketing it past Jazz, who was our goalie, before he could even move and into the top right corner of the net.

I looked over at Coach and he gave me a look at said "get it together or I'll bench you for the rest of the season, but good job anyway". I gave him a nod and the drill continued on.

I focused a bit more on practice after that, but didn't stop the cosmos from fucking with me some more. I was hit in the head with more balls than I could remember and tripped more than once.

When Coach finally called for the end of practice, I was practically on the verge of a mental breakdown. I couldn't get my brain to shut off with thoughts of the temptress that was Bella, my head was throbbing from the multiple beatings that it had gotten, and my ego was bruised beyond recognition.

No one dared talk to me as we walked back towards the locker room. They all knew better.

I was jerked back suddenly when someone grabbed my shoulder. I whipped around to find Newton standing there, his arms crossed over his chest in defiance. He just looked stupid to me. There was a bruise spreading under his eyes and covering his nose completely. I couldn't stop the smirk from slipping onto my face at the sight. A few of his football teammates were standing behind him, their stances identical to Newton's.

"May I help you?" I asked, finding this little stand off that he thought he was having with me a little bit amusing. My day had already been tragic, so Newton must be the comic relief.

"Did you think that you could get away with punching me with any consequences?" he growled.

"Well, it seems as if I already had…" I looked at his friends standing behind him. Oh, he thought he could beat me up with the help of his little friends. Ha! This guy was hysterical. "Oh, are you going to punish me for being a bad boy?" I heard my own teammates snickering behind me. "Sorry, dude, I don't swing that way. I'm sure you'll find someone who will love you for you though. Good luck with that." I gave him a smirk before turning back to the locker room doors.

I knew he was going to try to start something when I heard him growl behind me. I whipped back around just as he swung at me. I caught his arm mid-swing and pushed him away. He stumbled back towards his teammates. He looked back up and I could have sworn that I saw him cringe when he saw my glare.

"You need to fuck off. Now," I ground out, my anger building again. I definitely was not in the mood to deal with fuckers like Newton right now.

He met my glare with one of his own. Then a sly smirk slid onto his face. "Fine. I'll leave you alone. But I can't say the same about your girlfriend. Bella, isn't it?"

I saw red then. She wasn't even speaking to me and all I wanted to do was protect her from dicks like Newton. I stalked forward and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "If I see you anywhere near her, I will beat you until not even your mother could recognize you. Do you hear me? Stay the fuck away from Bella Swan." I let go of his shirt and shoved him away from me before I stormed past my teammates and into the locker room. I grabbed all of my stuff from my locker and raced out the door before anyone could even ask what was going on. I was thankful for that because they wouldn't have gotten an answer other than my fist meeting their face. I was so fucking riled up right now, I could just about kick down a fucking building.

I walked to my dorm as fact as I possibly could without looking like a complete freakshow (well, more of a freakshow since I was still covered in mud and sweat and my face was probably bright red with rage).

I made it to my dorm and threw open my door and bolted it shut. I turned off my phone and my computer. I didn't want to talk to anybody.

I took a deep breath and rested my head against the top of my desk. I don't think I had ever been that angry in my life. And all because he decided to bring Bella into the conversation (if you could call it that).

She didn't even like me and I felt some weird and frustrating… something for her and I completely flipped my lid at the mere mention of her name.

And I didn't even correct Newton when he called her my girlfriend. If that got around school, then she would definitely hate me (and probably castrate me. I had no doubt that she had the ability.). She didn't seem like the kind of girl that tolerated rumors like that.

I sighed and walked to my bathroom. I was going to take a long and very hot shower and I was going to wash away this heinous excuse for a day.

And maybe I'll try to stop thinking about Bella.

Not likely.

A/N: Oh, goodness, Eddie boy's got a bit of a dilemma. Haha. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews might earn you a visit from a hot and sweaty Edward. Yum-O. ;)

Later then,

Cat