This chapter is officially dedicated to Heath Ledger. My fake history with him will never be forgotten. (Mradrz4evr, you'll get that) Anyways, hope that u guys like it! It sure took long enough to write…

Chapter 5 – Biology with Edward

Bella POV

I watched Edward come in the door and waited for him to see me. He didn't look up until he was sitting right next to me, though. When he finally did, he jumped like he had been stuck with a pin.

"Hello, Edward," I said smoothly.

"Bella," he replied, trying to regain his composure. I could hear his heart thumping away, however. "You've been gone for a while," he continued.

"Yes," I responded just as coolly, "I was on a trip in Alaska, visiting some family friends." Not a lie. I was in Alaska and I was visiting family friends. I just wasn't saying why.

"May I ask why?" he asked. I looked in his green eyes. They were just so pretty…

"Family death," I blurted before I could stop myself. Inwardly I berated myself. Family death? Why the hell did I say that?

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," I quickly replied, shaking my head. "It's still just too fresh in my mind." That was good, working the emotions. As long as he thought that I was too broken up about the 'death' he wouldn't bother me about it.

"But your family didn't go with you?" He pressed. Once again I inwardly kicked myself.

"No, they weren't close with her. Actually had a falling out a few years back, to tell the truth," I lied. Might as well make it big if I was going to lie to begin with. Edward looked taken aback.

"Oh," was all that he could say. Great, I thought, I've scared him away. Perfect.

Mr. Banner took that moment to come in. He stood behind his desk and shuffled some papers until the bell rang, and then looked up at us.

"Good afternoon, class. Glad to see you're back Ms. Cullen," he announced. "Today we'll be separating the slides of onion root tip cells into their respective phases of mitosis and label them accordingly. The slides in the boxes," he indicated to the boxes on each of our desks, "are out of order. Your job is to put them back in order. No using your books, and in 20 minutes I'll be checking on who has it right."

I pulled the box closer to me as Edward grabbed the microscope.

"Will you be able to do this? You have been gone for a while," Edward asked.

"Yes, I will," I replied. It really would be. That wasn't a lie, I had done this lab many times already. "Go ahead," I added, motioning to the box. Edward grabbed one of the slides and positioned it on the microscope as he adjusted the eyepiece to the 40X objective. He studied it briefly.

"Prophase," he confidently assessed. I was surprised. Most people in the class had trouble distinguishing one slide from the other, much less name which was which.

"Do you mind if I look?" I asked. He pushed the microscope over to me, and our hands accidentally brushed in the process. I automatically stiffened and whipped my hand back.

"Sorry," I muttered, taking the microscope. I studied it for a second, and then confirmed what Edward had said.

"Prophase," I agreed, writing it on the worksheet and switching out the slide.

"Anaphase," I concluded after a moment of studying.

"May I?" Edward asked, sounding indifferent. I nodded, pushing the microscope towards him.

"Anaphase," he agreed, sounding disappointed. "Slide three?"

I handed it to him, being careful not to touch his skin. No need to make anything more complicated for me. It was already hard enough to resist him without touching him.

Edward studied the slide for a second.

"Interphase," he announced and passed me the microscope before I could even ask for it. I glanced at it swiftly and wrote it down on the paper.

We were finished identifying the slides before anybody else. A look around the room confirmed that nobody else was even close to getting it. There was an akward silence between us and I looked down at my hands as I twisted my fingers together. When I looked up, Edward was studying me with a confused expression on his face.

"Did you get contacts?" he suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"No," I shook my head. Why would he ask that?

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "It was just your eyes… they look different today." I shrugged, trying to cover up the fact that I knew exactly what he was talking about. When I had first met Edward I hadn't hunted for maybe a week or so and my eyes were almost black. I had gone hunting just last night because I knew that I would be around Edward and didn't want to be as tempted so they were more of a light ocher color today. My nails dug into my skin as I clenched my hand in a tight fist.

My mental anguish was interrupted by Mr. Banner as he came to check on what Edward and I had done so far. He studied our paper for a moment and then made a huffing noise.

"Isabella, didn't you think that Edward ought to have a chance to identify some of the slides?" he asked.

"Actually," I coolly replied, "Edward identified three of the five slides." Mr. Banner looked at Edwards sideways.

"Were you in an advanced placement class at your old school?" he asked him. Edward nodded.

"And you already did this lab then?"

Edward nodded again.

"I guess you'll make perfect lab partners, then," Mr. Banner muttered as he walked away.

Thanks to everybody that interviewed! Sorry that this took so long - there's been a lot to do lately! Maybe I'll be able to work on it tomorrow if we have a snowday. That's right, mradrz4evr, we might have a snowday! And it's snowing right now... it's so pretty & makes me want to write and drink hot chocolate. perhaps I'll do that tomorrow.