2. BORING BOOK

The next day was better...and worse.

It was better because it wasn't raining yet, though the clouds were opaque and dense. It was easier to slide into the routine of having Epic, Jalous, Minor and their friends tagging around me as I found my way around the school. People began to warm up to me and I revelled in the attention.

It was worse because the Cull'ems were still at their table, as beautiful and isolated as ever. As long as they were there, I couldn't be the prettiest girl in the school. And I didn't even want to think about that incident from yesterday...

It was odd though -- Edwill Cull'em never appeared in biology class that day. I was sure I'd seen him earlier in the cafeteria. Rage sparked in me again, less violent than before, but still present. Running away from me, was he? I had half a mind to confront his siblings and demand to know his whereabouts, but that would be unseemly for someone like me. Instead, I passed the lesson plotting various painful deaths should he ever have the misfortune to reappear in school.

With school over, I had some shopping to do. I had found out last night that my lousy excuse for a father could barely cook a piece of toast let alone a proper three-course dinner. To top it all off, he had almost no food whatsoever in the fridge or pantry. And so I took it upon myself to essentially be his mother and cook our meals. Honestly, I don't know why my mother ever bothered with him. Arming myself with cash from his food jar, I began the hunt for fresh groceries. The only good thing about this was I found a place where the infernal rain couldn't be heard -- Pitchforks' local supermarket.

Returning home, I found Charlie still had not come back from work. I stuffed the groceries away in any available space I could find then headed upstairs to check my emails. My mother had sent me a succession of emails, each more frantic than the last. I allayed her fears then sat down to my homework.

Our English teacher had set us Wuthering Heights to read. It was the most dull book to have ever been written. Just what exactly made this 'classic' so popular? I understood what it was like to be popular, but this book was far from my definition of the word.

My eyes were just about to flicker shut from sheer boredom when I heard a car pulling into the driveway. Shutting my book and tossing it to one side, I ran down the stairs to greet Charlie. Anything was better than that horrible thing.

"Hi, dad!" I greeted him, feigning cheerfulness.

"Hey, Bell." He removed his gun belt and stepped out of his boots as I bustled about the kitchen.

"What's for dinner?" he asked warily. He still remembered my mother's disastrous experiments with food.

"Steak and potatoes," I answered. I'd read the recipe from a cookbook: Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food -- Recipes from 'The F Word'. It seemed simple enough to make. I wouldn't know -- I've never cooked a day in my life. I only volunteered to be chef because whatever Charlie tried to cook was inedible, to put it politely.

He looked relieved. He wandered into the living room to watch some TV as I wrestled with the cookbook. I was quite happy with the result. Nothing burned, at least, and the oven didn't explode on me.

I called Charlie in when everything was laid out. He sniffed appreciatively as he entered the kitchen.

"Smells good, Bell."

"Thanks."

We ate in silence for a few minutes.

"So, how was school? Make any new friends?" Charlie asked as he took seconds.

I shrugged. "I met some kids who shared a few classes with me: a girl - Jalous, I think. Uh, a boy named Minor who's very friendly..." Too friendly, I thought privately. "And one more boy, Epic. Oh! And do you know the Cull'em family?"

"Oh, sure. Dr. Cull'em's a great man."

"They don't seem to fit in very well..."

Charlie surprised me by looking angry.

"People in this town," he muttered. "Dr. Cull'em is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary he gets here," he continued, getting louder. "We're lucky to have him -- lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community, and all of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts, when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature -- I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should -- camping trips every other weekend… Just because they're newcomers, people have to talk."

It was the longest speech I'd ever heard Charlie make. He must feel strongly about whatever people were saying.

"They're very attractive," I added.

"You should see the doctor," Charlie said, laughing. "It's a good thing he's happily married. A lot of the nurses at the hospital have a hard time concentrating on their work with him around."

We lapsed back into silence as we finished eating. Charlie cleared the table while I cleaned the dishes. I ought to get some sort of compensation for doing this, I thought irritably. But it was calming, in a way. Charlie went back to the TV and I went back upstairs to force myself to finish Wuthering Heights. Then I tossed it into a corner where I hoped never to see it again.

That night it stopped raining, so I finally had a good night's sleep.

I soon got used to the routine at school. By the end of the week, I knew the names of most of the people in my grade. Epic and Minor continued to compete over me when they thought I wasn't looking, and Jalous and Anyuuar kept me company in-between and during classes.

Edwill Cull'em still didn't come to school.

Every time the Cull'ems appeared without him, I was annoyed. The coward had probably run as far away from me as he could, since I apparently smelled so badly. If he had any decency, he would come crawling back, ashamed, and apologise.

The weekend passed without incident. The rain had decided to soften its patter and let me sleep in peace. I never got round to asking Charlie if I could sleep downstairs instead. There was something vaguely comforting about listening to the regular beat of rain against the roof. Torrents still kept me awake, though.

On Monday, however, it snowed. Which was even worse than rain. It meant that when it finally warmed up a bit again, everything would turn to slush.

Epic and Minor had started a snowball fight just outside the school. Holding my folder above my head and dodging flying balls of mush, I somehow made it inside the building. Minor aimed a snowball at me, but I dodged and instead it collided with the back of Jalous' head, prompting her immediate rebuttal. The morning passed with streaks of white whizzing past me at least once a second. I finally made it to the cafeteria, Jalous following and laughing at my need to avoid everything that was wet and squishy. But as soon as I walked through that door, I froze -- and I don't mean temperature-wise.

I was blocking the doorway. Jalous tried to push past me.

"Bella, are you alright?"

Alright? How could I be alright? That guy...!

I balled my hands into fists. "I'm fine," I said, and made myself walk as normally as I could to the lunch line. My new friends followed me, asking me repeatedly if I was 'alright'.

I wasn't feeling particularly hungry anymore, so I merely took a can of soda and sat sipping it with my eyes focused intensely on the table in front of me. I refused to respond to anything despite Jalous's urgings. What was he doing here? Why had he disappeared for a week? My hand trembled with the effort of not crushing the can of soda. Damn him for being so...!

A loud peal of laughter startled me into looking up against my will.

The Cull'ems were laughing. Edwill, Justabit, and Emwill all had their hair entirely saturated with melting snow. Alweis and Reolly were leaning away as Emwill shook his dripping hair toward them. They were enjoying the snowy day, just like everyone else.

But something was different. I couldn't quite pinpoint it. I studied Edwill the most carefully. His skin was less pale, I decided -- flushed from the snow fight maybe -- the circles under his eyes less noticeable. But there was something more. I stared at them, trying to isolate the change.

"Bella, what are you staring at?" Jalous intruded, her eyes following my stare.

At that precise moment, his eyes flashed over to meet mine.

I looked away before I could think. Then cursing myself, looked back. What was I afraid of?

He didn't seem furious like he had been last week. He merely looked curious. And unsatisfied in some way.

As I glared at him, his lips twitched upwards as if he were amused. He turned away from my gaze and soon rejoined his siblings in their laughter.

By the time lunch ended rain had washed away the snow, preventing further outbreaks of snowball fights (which I was secretly glad of). I headed to biology with some trepidation, trailed by a steady flood of moans and complaints from Minor about the absence of the snow. It seemed he would have staged an epic snowball fight out in the parking lot had the snow continued to fall. For once, I mentally thanked the rain.

I didn't know whether to feel relieved or frustrated when I saw that my table was still empty. Mr. Banner was walking around the room, distributing one microscope and a box of slides to each table. The classroom buzzed with conversation as we waited for him to hand out our equipment. I sat down and began to doodle idly in my notebook.

I heard very clearly when the chair next to me moved, but I was adamant that I would not so much as glance at him.

"Hello," said a quiet voice.

Involuntarily (again), I looked at him, stunned that he was speaking to me. He was sitting as far away from me as the desk allowed, but he had angled his chair towards me. His hair was still dripping wet -- even so, he remained as overwhelming beautiful as ever. His pale face was friendly, open, and there was a slight smile on his lips. But his eyes watched me carefully.

"My name is Edwill Cull'em," he continued. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

I was thrown by his change in attitude. Mad at me one day and polite the next? Did he think that by being polite now he could be forgiven for how he had acted last week? I opened my mouth to speak -- I had been planning what to say to him ever since last Monday -- but no words came out. I was caught up in too many emotions for my throat to work.

He was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to say something. After a while of watching me gape mutely like a fish, he adopted a puzzled expression.

"Are you alright?" he asked with a hint of worry.

I snapped then. Was I alright? Was I alright? The nerve of him! How could he ask me a question like that without batting an eyelid? I opened my mouth to tell him exactly how 'alright' I was.

"Alright class: I want you to separate the slides you have on your desk into the stages of mitosis and label them on the sheet I gave you. Get to it!" Mr. Banner commanded.

"Ladies first," Edwill said, pushing the microscope towards me. Saved by the teacher. Lucky bastard.

I gave a small 'hmph' before snapping the first slide into place and adjusting the microscope. How boring. I'd done this prac before. I gave the slide a brief once over then pushed the microscope back.

"Prophase," I said confidently.

"Mind if I check?" Without waiting for a reply, he placed his own eye to the lens. His examination was even quicker than mine. "Prophase," he agreed, and wrote our answer in neat, cursive writing on the sheet. He swapped the slides over with the ease of having done so many times and peered through the scope.

"Anaphase," he murmured, writing it down as he spoke.

His casual tone placed another bur under my skin. "May I see?" I tried to ask as indifferently as possible.

He smirked and pushed the microscope over. I tried to take the most cursory glance I could. Damn. He was right.

"Slide three?" I held out my hand without looking at him.

He handed it to me and again I tried to look as quickly as possible.

"Interphase." I passed him the microscope before he could ask. He took a quick peek before writing it down. I would've written it down, but I was intimidated by his clear, perfect script.

We finished before anyone else. Still refusing to look at him, I watched as the rest of the class struggled, gaining a small sense of satisfaction from their frustration. Mr. Banner soon came over to see why we weren't doing anything.

"So, Edwill, didn't you think Belladonna should get a turn at the microscope?" he asked.

"Bella," he corrected automatically. "Actually, she identified three of the five."

Mr. Banner looked at me now, his expression sceptical.

"Have you done this prac before?" he asked.

"Yes, but with whitefish blastula," I replied in a bored tone.

"Well," he said after a moment. "I guess it's good you two are lab partners." He wandered away, mumbling to himself. I began to doodle on my notebook again. I could sense Edwill leaned forward slightly as he inspected my drawing.

"Who's that?" he asked, extending a finger towards my book.

I slapped his hand back, finally letting some of my frustration with him show. My mind barely registered the coldness of his fingers. All I knew was that I was angry -- very angry -- with him.

He looked stunned. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked in a confused voice.

"Wrong? Everything about you is just...wrong!" I hissed at him.

He frowned but continued to look puzzled. He opened his mouth, doubtless to defend himself, but I jumped in before he could say anything.

"From the moment I walked in this class, you hated me! You hated me! I'd only seen you once or twice, but as soon as you smelled me, you covered your mouth as if you thought my scent was rancid! If you had such a problem with my smell, why didn't you just say something? And now you come back and talk to me as if nothing happened! No word of apology, no hint of embarrassment or anything! You even have the gall to ask if there's something wrong with me?"

I realised I had stood up and was yelling directly into his face. His eyes were wide with surprise at my vehemence. All at once, I realised everyone was staring at me -- even Mr. Banner. Flushing red, I swept up my books, grabbed my bag and stormed out of the classroom, being careful not to trip ungracefully on the way out.

I didn't wonder about what the rest of the school would think of me after my rant. I didn't care if I missed out on the last period of the day -- it was only PE anyway. I tossed my books into the passenger seat, slammed the door shut, started my truck with a roar, and then with a screech of tires I howled my way out of the school grounds. For the second time -- exactly a week from last Monday -- I was tearing down the highway, trying to avoid the afternoon traffic.