Let the Games Begin

A/N: Hey, guys. Thank you to all who reviewed. I really appreciate them. This is the longest chapter to date, so I'll let you go ahead and get started on it. Alright? Alright.

Chapter 7
Shakespeare and Teenage Angst: Never a Good Combo

(BPOV)

Today is Tuesday, but it's not just any Tuesday. It's the Tuesday that I'm supposed to meet up with Edward to get started on our Lit project. Which means that I have to be alone with him. In the same room. Together. With him.

As you can probably tell, this is setting me a bit on edge.

It's not the project I'm worried about. I love Much Ado About Nothing and the scene that Edward and I were assigned was one that I loved. It's the fact that I have to do it with Edward that's got me freaking out a little bit.

The bell had just rung signaling for the end of Lit class and everyone was collecting their belongings to head to their next class.

"Bella." I looked up to find Edward standing next to me. "We still on for tonight?" he asked.

I glanced around the room, making sure nobody heard him. Thankfully, no one was paying any attention to us. "Yeah, six, right?" I asked, trying not to look him in the eye because we all know that wouldn't end well. Yeah, with him on the floor with me on top of him.

"Yeah," he said. He was quiet for a second. "Listen, we need a place to do this, right?" I nodded. "Well, I was thinking we could do it in my room. I mean, I don't have a roommate, so we wouldn't be disturbed or anything."

I could feel my cheeks heating up as he spoke. Just thinking about his room was making me think very naughty thoughts, thoughts that I couldn't be having if I wanted to keep my distance from him.

I considered it for a moment. We did need a place to do this that was quiet and where we could get the most work done. So it seemed like the perfect place. Yeah, keep telling yourself that, you nosy perv. You just want to get a look around his room.

I shook the dirty, but pleasurable, thoughts away. "Yeah, that would be fine," I told him.

"Okay," he said, sounding relieved. Jesus, what did he have to be so nervous about? We're just practicing for a project. I mean, it's not like he likes me or anything. "Alright, well then, I'll see you tonight. Or later today actually. Yeah, bye." And then he turned and started walking away.

So we were actually going to work on this thing in his room. Alone. Together. By ourselves. With no one around. This couldn't possibly be good.

... And it wasn't going to happen if I didn't find out where his room was. I had no idea where the boys' dorms were. Shit.

I walked quickly out the door, hoping to catch him before he ran off to his next class. Thankfully, I saw him just a ways ahead of me.

"Edward, wait," I called, walking as fast as I could with falling on my ass like I knew that I would if I tried anything other than a mild power walk. He stopped and turned to look at me, confused. I caught up with him, panting slightly. Jesus tapdancing Christ, that boy had some freakishly long legs! "Where's your room?" I asked him.

"Oh, um, you might need to know that," he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck."I live in Downing Hall, room 512. Just come straight on up. Just tell them you're with me if anyone tries to stop you."

"Okay," I said. He nodded and gave me a small wave before heading off to his next class.

I stood there for a second, just watching his walk away. What in the name of all things good and holy was up with him today? He was acting so nervous and jittery. I mean, we were just going to be practicing for the project, no big deal, right? Right. So what was up with him? Nothing had really changed between us.

Alright, stop right there. You know that right there was a damn lie. I sighed and turned to head to fourth period. Things had changed between Edward and I. We were talking a little bit now. Granted, when we did talk it was about the project or something school related, never personal, and those conversations were few and far between. But he had been looking at me. I mean, not just staring at me like I had shit on my face or anything, but really looking at me, like he was trying to see into my mind, like he was trying to figure me out.

I snorted humorlessly. But why would he be doing that? It's not like he liked me. I mean, sure, we could be civil with each other if the need arose, but other than that, he didn't acknowledge me.

The nervous butterflies in my stomach weren't going to go away anytime soon, so I pushed all thoughts of Edward Masen to the back of my mind, hoping to God that I could make it through the rest of the day without some sort of major catastrophe happening.

(EPOV)

Holy. Fucking. Shit. When did I become a preteen girl with a crush? And what the fuck was up with the stuttering around Bella this morning?

I didn't stutter. Around anyone. At all. Not even when my dad caught me looking through his stash of "man" magazines when I was in the fifth grade. Thankfully, I didn't get in trouble for that. My dad thought it was funny and the proceeded to give me "the talk." Which is a horrifying thing to experience for anyone, especially an eleven-year-old with a father that likes to embarrass his only child, but I digress.

So what was up with me today? Maybe it was the fact that Bella Swan, the girl that I've been sort of semi-stalking for the past two and a half weeks, is going to be in my room tonight. Tonight.

Holy shit, what have I done? I just invited Bella Swan to my room, granted it was just to practice for the project, but still. Bella is going to be in my room tonight and I'm so not ready for that to happen. Is my room even clean? When was the last time I actually made my bed? How many pair of dirty underwear are on my floor right now? Oh my God, I'm a fucking idiot.

Yeah, an idiot that's going to have a panic attack if he doesn't calm the fuck down. I leaned against the side of the building, taking deep breathes as I tried to calm myself down.

Dude, just relax. She's going to be there for what, a hour tops? It's no big deal. She'll read her lines. I'll read mine. We'll polish it up a bit and done. See, no big deal. Everything will be just fine.

Yeah, just fine. Everything will be great.

I took one last deep breath before heading into class, hoping that I could get through it without having another panic attack.

~x~X~x~

As soon as practice was over I ran back to the locker room to shower and grab my stuff.

"Dude, what's the rush?" Jasper asked as he gathered his own belongings.

I threw my cleats into my locker and slammed it shut and locked it. "I've got some place to be," I said quickly before sprinting back to my dorm. I ignored the looks I got as I ran across campus. I ran up the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator.

I fumbled with my keys for a second before I found the one to my door. I pushed open my door and looked around my room. I finally let myself breathe when I looked around my room and saw that it wasn't quite the hazard zone that I had built it up to be in my head. I threw my soccer bag into the corner of the room and my schoolbag onto my desk.

I walked around the room, picking up the dirty clothes that were littering the floor. I threw them in the hamper before attacking my bathroom. I tossed the used towels into the hamper as well.

Once my room looked presentable, I changed out of my uniform and into some basketball shorts and a t-shirt.

I looked at the clock. 5:27.

I sighed. I still had a little while before Bella get here. I sat down at my desk and pulled out some of my other homework, hoping to get most of it done (and to keep myself from going crazy by thinking about Bella).

I worked on my homework for a while before looking back up at the clock. 6:11.

Bella was supposed to be here by now. Did something come up or was she just late?

I waited a little while longer and she still hadn't shown up yet. Alright, I know Bella and I hadn't been getting along but there's no reason she wouldn't show up to work on something for school, right?

I pulled out my phone and called Alice. If anyone knew where Bella was, it would be her.

"Hey, cuz," Alice chirped on the other end of the phone.

"Hey, do you know where Bella might be?" I asked, getting straight to the point before Alice could go off on one of her hyperactive tangents.

"Bella? Why would you need to know where Bella is?" she asked, her tone laced with humor and intrigue.

"We were supposed to meet up to work on our Lit project at six, but she hasn't shown up yet," I told her, making sure none of my teenage girl angst slipped into my tone.

Alice giggled on the other side. "I know, Bella told me. She should be there by now. She left like twenty minutes ago."

"Okay, thanks," I said. We said bye and hung up.

Where the hell was she? I pulled on a pair of Nikes and headed downstairs. She might have gotten lost along the way.

I stepped off the elevator and was greeted with a pair of loud voices and one of the voices sounded angry... and very much like Bella Swan.

I looked over at the lobby and to find Bella glaring up at the obnoxiously familiar blonde head of Mike Newton. "For the last fucking time, Newton, let me go, or I swear to God, I will cut your balls off and shove them down your throat," Bella ground out angrily. What did she mean "let me go"?

I looked in between them and saw that Mike was holding onto her wrist. Just the sight of him touching her made me furious.

"Hey!" I barked. Everyone turned to look at me, including Bella and Newton. Newton turned a little green at the sight of me. I guess my threat didn't sink in all the way. Bella looked a little... relieved to see me. "Newton, what the fuck are you doing?"

I stormed over to them and pushed myself in between them, finally getting Newton to drop Bella's wrist. "Didn't I tell you to stay the fuck away from her?" I pushed him back a little.

Newton blanched a little before straightening up and putting a tough facade on. "You can't tell me what to do. If I want to talk to Bella, then I'm going to talk to Bella. You can't stop me." Jesus Christ, he's a moron.

"Does it look like she wants to talk to you, or has she not threatened your genitalia enough? Really because most guys, you know, the smart ones, stop bothering a girl after the first few threats on our dicks. Most of us like to stay in one piece, if you know what I'm saying?" All of the other guys in the room that had been watching our little show laughed loudly, agreeing with me.

"Now, you're going to leave Bella alone, like she has asked you many times, I'm sure, otherwise, I won't stop her from doing whatever the hell she wants with you." I stopped for a second, thinking. "On second thought, I might just let you try one more time because, if she dismembers you, she won't be doing the world great disservice. We don't need any little Newtons running around here." The room roared with laughter again. As you can see, Newton wasn't the most well liked among the student population here at St. Alex's.

Newton blanched again and then scurried away with his tail between his legs like the pussy he was. I turned to Bella and she had that look on her face. The look that said that she was about to flip out on me again, but I wasn't going to let her do that again.

She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. I moved closer to her so that I could talk to her without people listening in. "Listen, I know you can take care of yourself. You've proven that time and time again, but Newton is a rare breed. He doesn't know when to give up and take a hint. He's going to come back again and again like the moron that he is, so I'm sorry for stepping in again, but he wasn't listening to you. But I know he listens to me. He learned that lesson the hard way."

She was quiet for a second, her chest moving up and down, her breathes deeper than normal. And then she sighed and looked down at the ground. "Thank you," she said tersely before turning around and heading out the door before I could stop her.

I was about to call her back because we needed to work on our project, but I just thought fuck it and went back up to my room.

I sighed as I closed the door to my room. And here I thought thing were getting better between us. I guess not.

(BPOV)

He had saved me. Again. That asshole Newton did not know how to take a hint. Every time I think I've finally gotten it through to him that he needed to fuck off, he would show up again with more shitty pick-up lines and disturbing innuendo.

And almost every time, Edward was there to get him to back off, making him run away like a scared dog.

He was not making it easy for me to stay away from him. Maybe it's a sign. Maybe I shouldn't stay away from him.

I snorted. Yeah, right. Like Edward Masen would go for someone like me. Sure, he was being nice and all and he kept Newton at bay for the most part, but other than that, I couldn't see why he would have any interest in me whatsoever.

This ongoing back and forth we had was exhausting. I really don't know how much more of it I can take.

~x~X~x~

The next day in Lit was awkward. Edward and I were sitting in our respective seats, waiting to see if one or the other was going to break the awkward silence that had fallen between us.

I sighed and turned to him, I had finally had enough. "I'm sorry I ran off last night. I know we were supposed to work on our project, but I wasn't really feeling up to it after the whole Newton situation." He nodded in understanding. "Look, I think that us getting together to work on this thing will only lead to more disaster." He tried to say something, but I cut him off. "I know my lines and I know you know yours, so let's just have a run through before class on Friday and be done with it, alright?"

He was quiet then before he gave a terse nod, his face tight and body stiff. "If that's what you want," he said tightly. I gave him a nod. He nodded back before turning back to the front of the class, his eyes trained on the board.

He didn't look at me for the rest of class. When the bell rang, he was up and out of his seat before I could even shove my books in my bag.

He was like that for the rest of the week, too. In bio, he was quiet and only spoke to me when we had a lab and even then, his responses were short and tense. He didn't look at me like he had before, his eyes always blank and dull whenever I saw them.

I didn't like it. There was no sparkle in his eyes. No soul-searching gazes. He just seemed totally lifeless and for some reason, I felt like it was my fault.

This guy, this handsome, confident, wonderful guy that used to be so full of life, had turned into a shadow of himself. He didn't joke around with his friends at lunch like I used to see him do. He didn't participate in class like he used to. From what I heard Jasper and Emmett say about their soccer practices, he wasn't as energetic as he normally was. He just seemed dead.

I had to fix this somehow. I may not understand why he was acting like this, but I had this feeling down in my gut that was telling me that I had to make this better.

When Friday finally arrived, I knew that today was going to be an interesting day. I walked into Lit and saw Edward sitting at his desk, his blank stare focused on the board once again.

I walked to my desk and put my stuff down. I sat down at my desk and waited for Mrs. Young to start the class. She came in the room a few minutes later. "Alright, class, our presentations will be starting today. I'll give each pair a few minutes in the hallway to practice before they go on." She called on the first pair to go and they started up and the class went on like that.

Finally, Mrs. Young called our names. "Edward and Isabella are up next. You two can go on out if you wish."

I nodded to Mrs. Young and got up and Edward followed.

He started off his lines. He knew them perfectly, but there was absolutely no emotion behind them whatsoever. And that would not do at all.

"Is that really all you've got? Come on now, someone like you should be able to do much better than that. That was pathetic," I taunted him, hoping to incite even the smallest bit of emotion from him.

And it worked.

I saw something flash in his eyes for the first time all week. Mrs. Young called us in and we walked back into the room. She set up the scene for us and then Edward started up his lines and I could barely keep myself from sighing in relief as he spoke them with so much energy and life.

"If Signor Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all of Messina, as like him as she is," Edward said, starting off Benedick's lines.

I got into character, pulling out my look of total boredom as I spoke Beatrice's line. "I wonder that you will still be talking, Signor Benedick. Nobody marks you."

Edward's eyes flashed and he let out a bark of laughter. "What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?"

"Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain if you come in her presence," I sneered at him.

He snorted. "Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies," He actually turned to the class and sent the girls a wink and a smirk that nearly made me drop my jaw. The girls giggled and sighed at him and I honestly wanted to throw up a little bit. And then he turned back to me, a slight scowl on his face. "Only you excepted. And I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I love none."

I rolled my eyes at him. "A dear happiness to women. They would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor." I could help but throw a glare in Newton's direction, even though I doubted he knew what I was talking about. "I thank God and my cold blood I am of your humor for that. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me."

Edward gave me a look before smirking at me again. "God keep your Ladyship still in that mind, so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face."

I snorted at him. "Scratching could not make it worse an 'twere a face such as yours were."

Edward scowled at me again. "Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher."

I turned away from him and crossed my arms over my chest. "A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours."

He let out a barking laugh. "I would my horse had the speed of your tongue and so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's name. I have done." He gave a nod and a slight bow, his eyebrows raised teasingly and his smirk back in place.

I sent him a hard look. "You always end with a jade's trick. I know you of old."

I sighed once we were done. The class clapped and a few guys whistled. "Oh, that was just wonderful, you two," Mrs. Young cooed. "Just wonderful, such wonderful chemistry you have together." I slid my eyes over to Edward and our eyes met for a second before we both looked away quickly.

We both headed back to our seats and we watched the rest of the class do their presentations. I only looked at him once after our presentation and I couldn't hold back to little smile that slipped onto my face. His eyes were shining again, with what I didn't know, but they had a fire in them again.

I didn't care if he was angry at me, as long as he didn't move around like a zombie, then I was okay.

The bell finally rang and he was up and out of his seat as quickly as he had been all week. I didn't know what that was about, but at least he wasn't moping anymore, I hoped.

(EPOV)

"...and be done with it, alright?"

Her words echoed on my head, and I had finally had enough. I just stopped caring. She didn't want anything to do with me, so just stopped trying to do anything about it.

I pushed her out of my mind, along with everything else.

I just didn't care.

All week long I had people bickering in my ear.

"Dude, snap out of it."

"Come on, man, do something."

"Edward, wake up."

"Do anything."

But I couldn't bring myself to care about anything.

Until Friday that is.

On Friday, I got angry.

Today was the day that we were supposed to do our presentations in Lit and before class, I didn't really care about it. That is, until Bella decided that not caring wasn't going to be an option.

Before we went on, she taunted me and insulted me. Called me pathetic.

And then something finally clicked inside of my head and a fire roared inside of me again. And I was pissed. Because I knew she was right. I was pathetic.

When had I, Edward Masen, let a girl, or anybody for that matter, dictate how I lived my life? When did I let her gain so much control over me that I shut down completely when she wouldn't let me into her life?

The fact that I had let that happen pissed me the fuck off and it was going to stop right now.

So I went into Lit and did my presentation with Bella and fucking killed it. Because that's what I do. I rock everything I do, and I wasn't going to let some girl stop me.

~x~X~x~

Today was now Saturday and the first game of the season was later this afternoon.

I was sitting with the team at lunch like we always did before a game. Everyone around the room was decked out in royal blue and black, some with our numbers, others just in school memorabilia.

"Yo, Captain, you out of your funk yet?" Seth teased loud enough for the entire team to hear. I kept up my conversation with Emmett and flipped Seth the bird.

The team snorted and laughed. I smirked.

Yeah, I was back.

After we all finished lunch, we all headed to the locker room to change into our uniforms. We were wearing our blue uniforms. Now, here's the thing about these uniforms. They were nice because our school was loaded. Because, let's face it, it's a school full of rich kids. Rich kids with rich mommies and daddies that paid through the nose to send their children here. The only problem with these uniforms, the blue ones anyway, are that we looked a bit like smurfs when we wore them. Coach made us wear them because he said that the school paid for them and we weren't going to waste money by not wearing them. If we had our way, we would wear the black ones all season long, because, I mean come on, black just made everything look intimidating.

I sat down at my locker and waited for the trainer to come around to tape up my ankles. He finally came around and taped them up so that I could finally pull on my shinguards, socks (black, thankfully), and cleats.

The locker room was loud, rock and rap music blaring through the speakers that we had set up in the corner of the guys were basically yelling at each other, but no one bothered to turn down the music.

Coach finally came into the room and someone shuts down the speakers. "Alright, you all know Oceanic Prep is our biggest challenge every year and nothing has changed. They have been working on their offense and defense since last year, so I need everyone to be on their game today." He eyes shifted to me and I gave him a slight nod.

"Okay, now let's go kick some Penguin ass!"

I know what you're thinking. Penguin? Yeah, not exactly ferocious, if you know what I mean. Tiger, yes. Penguin, not so much.

Loud cheers filled the locker room and we all start towards the door. This was my time.

(BPOV)

Be honest with me, do I come across as the type of person that willingly goes to school funded events? No? Really because that's what I thought too.

But apparently this didn't compute with Alice and Rose. So here I am, standing in the heat, at a soccer game at two in the afternoon on a Saturday. On any normal Saturday, I would still be sleeping around this time. Yeah, that's right. I sleep obnoxiously late on weekends because I never actually sleep during the week. Why? I don't know. I just don't, so weekends are my catch-up days.

But not this weekend. Nope, I was rudely awakened at the crack of noon by a hyperactive Alice and a smiling Rose.

"Bella, my God, why are you still in bed?" Alice asked, pulling the covers off of me like the demented child that she was.

"Because I was sleeping. Normal people sleep in beds," I grumbled, burying my face deeper into my pillow and curling up into a ball.

"Well, you're awake now, so get up. We're going to the guys' game," Rose said, pulling on my arm.

"Game? What game?" Obviously, my brain has not started functioning correctly because if it was, I would know what game. Emmett and Jasper have been talking about this soccer game all week long. But seeing as my brain was not awake yet, it wasn't exactly computing.

"The game against Oceanic Prep. They're our biggest rival. Now get up and put this on," Alice said sounding exasperated before chunking a shirt and a pair of shorts at my head.

I grumbled and rolled out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom, cursing them both along the way. I pulled on the pair of denim shorts that could have honestly been a wee bit longer on the backend, if you know what I'm saying. But I put them on because, once again, my brain was not functioning yet. I slipped on the fitted t-shirt that had a number six printed on the front left-hand pocket. I could tell that there was more printed on the back, but I didn't care to see what it was.

I walked out of the bathroom and Alice thrust a pair of heels in my face. "Put these on," she said.

I looked at her like she had grown another head. "What the hell have you smoking, girl? Do you honestly think I'm going to wear those? Let me tell you. No."

Alice sulked as I pushed past her and dug in my closet until I found the pair of shoes I was looking for. "Aha!" I cried when I found them still in the suitcase sitting at the bottom of my closet. I smiled and went over to my bed so that I could put my knee-high converse boots on. I really loved these things. They were awesome.

Rose and Alice were giving me odd looks when I looked back up at them. "What?" I asked.

"Must you wear those things?" Alice pouted. I nodded, giving her a cheeky grin, much to her displeasure. Alice was the definition of fashionista while I was the exact opposite. I always just threw together whatever and went with it. Alice was up three hours early to pick out her outfit (even though it was the same one everyday) and fix her hair and make-up. I was lucky if I even rolled out of bed on time.

She sighed, giving up. Apparently I was a lost cause. Oh well. "Let's go," she said. I grabbed a ponytail holder before we filed out of the room.

As I was tying my hair up, I looked down at my shirt again. "Who's number six?" I asked.

"You'll see," the chimed together. Great, synchronized speaking. That was never a good thing when it came to those two.

We made it to the field and maneuvered our way into the "prime" seating location on the bleachers where you could see everything on the field. None of the players were on the field yet, but the stands were full on both sides. Royal blue and black for the home team's side, silver and purple for the visitor's.

I was getting scathing looks from almost every girl there for reasons unbeknownst to me. I shot them looks of annoyance as I looked around the field.

"So, when does this thing start?" I asked Alice, who was sitting next to me.

"In about ten minutes."

I nodded and stood. "I'm going to go to the bathroom and get some water," I told them. They nodded and then turned back to their conversation.

I squeezed my way back through the crowd and slipped into the bathroom before heading to the concession stand. By the time I got to the front of the line, I heard a roar from the crowd and a muffled voice start to announce the teams. I couldn't hear what the voice was saying, so I ignored it. I ordered a water and then headed back towards the stands.

(EPOV)

"And here they are, your very own St. Alexander Tigers," the announcer's voice boomed over the speakers that surrounded the field. A tiger's snarling roar ripped through them as we ran onto the field.

The crowd roared when we appeared, waving their banners and shaking their shakers.

We gave a wave to the crowd and then headed over to the bench. We ran a few warm-up laps before meeting back at the bench.

A few of the guys started whistling and howling at something, but I wasn't paying attention. "Damn, she's hot," I heard one of them say.

Seth tapped me on the shoulder. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Who?" I asked distractedly.

"Her," he said, pointing at the girl that had everyone in a hormone induced tizzy.

I looked up and I froze. What in the hell was she doing here? Bella Swan was walking next to the bleachers, a water bottle in hand.

Remember when I said that I wasn't going to let her have anymore control over me? Yeah, all of that? Down the drain.

She was wearing jean shorts that didn't look all that long and showed off her (I'll admit it) fantastic legs, half of which were covered by knee-high converse boots. I swear she's trying to fucking kill me. She was wearing a black t-shirt with some blue writing on it. I couldn't tell what it was by the way she was standing.

"She was the last person I ever expected to be here today," Emmett said, coming up behind me.

"Yeah," Jasper said. "Alice probably had something to do with it." Damn that little pixie.

Before she could make it to the stairs of the bleachers, one of the guys called out to her. "Looking sexy, girl." Bella stopped and looked around before her eyes landed on him. She cocked her eyebrow like she normally did as she gave him a once over. She gave him a little smile before pressing two fingers to her lips and blowing him a kiss... and flicking him off.

The guys groaned and laughed at him as Bella rolled her eyes and walked back up into the stands. I was about to look away when I caught sight of what was on the back of her shirt. Masen was emblazoned across her shoulders, my number standing out in the middle of her back.

"Holy shit," I breathed.

"What? What is it?" Seth asked, looking in the same direction as me. He eyes widened when he saw what I saw.

"Shit, man, is that your..." I nodded, my head in a daze.

What the hell was she doing wearing my number? Did she even know it was my number? Was she trying to fucking drive me crazy? Because she is succeeding. I'll be institutionalized by the end of the week.

Coach blew his whistle, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Alright, guys, focus. Do what we practiced and we'll be fine. Ready, tigers on three. One, two, three."

"Tigers!" we all yelled before heading out onto the field.

I ran to my position in the middle of the field and stood across from Oceanic Prep's captain. I scowled at him and he scowled right back. "Masen," he growled.

"Hunter." James Hunter was probably the only other person that I despised more than Newton. He was a sneak and a cheat and he loved to mess with my head. But I wouldn't let him this time. I already had a certain blue-streaked brunette doing that, so there was no room for him.

The refs were checking numbers and positions, so I snuck one more glance over at Bella. Surprisingly, my eyes met with hers. She raised an eyebrow at me. I raised one back. Her eyes swept down my body and her eyes locked on the middle of my chest and her eyes widened. Well, that answers that question. She obviously didn't realize whose number she was wearing.

And then her face changed. She brought her eyes back up to mine and she smirked. She brought her fingers up to her lips and blew me a kiss and fluttered her fingers at me.

I scowled at her which only made her smirk grow.

"Fine, if that's how you want to play it," I said under my breath. I flipped my scowl into a smirk and for a second, I could have sworn I saw something that resembled nervousness flash in her eyes. This was going to be good.

Let the games begin.

A/N: Whew, that one was a doozy and a lot of shit when down. I hope you all were able to keep up. Sorry to all that wanted to see the soccer game, but seeing as I do not, nor have I ever, played soccer, I wouldn't be able to do it justice. I just enjoy watching it.

Well, it seems Bella and Edward have a very interesting year ahead of them. Review and you'll get more.

Outfits on Polyvore. Link on profile. Check it out if you want.

Until next week,

Cat :)