Chapter Notes!

Ok, so I'm sure anyone who's read this has noticed the similarities between the two stories...but i PROMISE that things will start to change.

All rights belong to the artist of the song and SM

See ya on the other side,

Kat :)

2: Open Book

"It's..." Savannah trailed off as she watched me paint, munching on Rocky Road ice cream.

"Don't," I warned.

"You're angry," she murmured, laying back against my pillows.

"Livid," I corrected automatically.

"But why?" she asked, twirling the spoon in her fingers. "I thought we had a lovely day."

I scoffed, shaking my head as I dipped my paint brush into a rich black color. "Savannah, what did we agree to earlier?"

"That I could only come in here if I didn't talk," she replied quietly.

"And what are you doing now?"

"Talking."

I looked back at her, raising my eyebrows with a small smile.

She huffed and rolled over onto her stomach, mumbling profanities into my pillows.

"Girls," Tammy called from behind the door, "dinner's ready."

Savannah quickly threw the pint of ice cream into the trash and stood up. "Okay mom, we're on our way down."

At the sound of her mother's retreating footsteps, Savannah grabbed me by my upper arm and yanked me out of the room and down the hall to our bathroom. "Clean yourself up girl, you're a mess," she told me flat out before closing me inside the room.

What the hell is she talking about?

I looked at my hands and then looked at my reflection in the mirror. It was...frightening.

My wavy brown hair was tangled and held smears of white and red in it, and my hands had managed to look like I'd been painting them and not a canvas. There was a long line of black down my left cheek as well, and my clothes were completely wrecked.

At least now I've got new painting clothes.

I rolled my eyes at my thoughts and did my best to wash off all of the paint from my skin. I didn't really bother to try and fix my hair, I just gathered it up into a tangled, messy pony tail and headed downstairs for dinner.

Tammy hugged me tightly as I entered the dining room and gently kissed the top of my head. "I never got to thank you properly for taking care of my daughter in her younger years," she murmured, brushing my bangs from my face. "I don't know who she would've turned out to be if it wasn't for you Cassie."

She was a wonderful woman, but I didn't really see the resemblance between Savannah and Tammy.

Tammy barely reached 5'2" while Savannah was nearly as tall as I was. Her mother had shoulder length light brown hair, but I didn't know Savannah's natural hair color. In all the eleven years I'd known her, she'd always bleached her hair. There were dark roots sometimes, but never long enough to make out an exact color. In fact, the only things they shared were their pale green eyes and hour glass shaped figures.

I laughed silently and pulled away from Tammy to sit next to her daughter.

Rick opened up a large family size cheese pizza box and served the four of us each our own slices and then got himself one two.

"Thank you Lord for bringing us this new family member, we are pleased to have her in our home," he said, bowing his head low. Savannah folded her hands in front of herself so I did the same. "She has been nothing but kind to my step daughter, so I thank you for blessing us with her presence. Amen."

"Amen," we all murmured.

My cheeks flushed and I dipped my head, biting into the pizza.

Rick was a volunteer fire fighter at the Forks Fire Station, but he also helped out at his family's church, which explained why he was so religious.

Back home, I'd only gone to church a few times with my family but it stopped when I was six. But I'd gone a couple times with Savannah when she had lived in Marquette with her biological father.

"Uh, what do you guys know about the Cullens?" I asked hesitantly.

Savannah's eyes flashed to my face, her gaze questioning.

"Dr. Cullen's family?" Rick asked, and I nodded. "Sure, everybody knows them. Dr. Cullen is a great man, he's good at his job."

"They seem nice," I persisted, hoping to get a little more information out of them. Except for Edward. I added internally. "Why do they keep to themselves...? They're obviously attractive enough to get by with just their looks."

Rick had stopped eating and stared at me from across the table, his dark brow furrowed.

"You should see the doctor," Tammy mumbled, her cheeks darkening slightly. Rick's blue eyes flew to her face in surprise which only made Tammy blush even further. "It's a good thing he's happily married, as am I," she added, trying to appease the clouded look that crossed her husband's face.

Savannah sighed heavily, shaking her head at me as she took another bite of her cheese pizza.

"So Cassie," Tammy said suddenly, trying to change the subject, "how was your first day? Do you like Forks?"

I forced out a reassuring smile. "It was great," I lied. "And I love Forks. I'm happy it rains instead of snows during this part of the year."

I shouldn't have been able to lie so easily, it just wasn't healthy. Not for me, and not for anyone around me. I was like a plague or something; I knew that sooner or later, I would infect everyone and bring them down into my depressed state.

But Savannah wasn't convinced, she had seen me after school. She'd seen the emotional wreck that I'd been.

She pursed her lips and turned away from me to cut up Noah's pizza for him.

"Thank you for dinner," I mumbled as I stood up. "It was good."

"You haven't even finished your first slice." Tammy pointed to the half eaten slice with her fork. "Are you feeling okay?"

I shook my head, dumping the paper plate into the garbage. "I think I'm just going to take a hot shower and call my mom before I go to bed."

She nodded and wished me good night and I left to climb up the steep stairs and get into the shower.

The following day was better...and worse.

It was better because Savannah had explained to everyone that I wasn't a whore and I wasn't some drug user so most of the rumors stopped. She'd made my life so much easier by standing up for me. I knew what to expect when I went to school now, so that helped. People didn't look at me quite as much after the rumors had been proven wrong either, and I sat with a large group of Savannah's friends at lunch and I could even remember most of their names.

But it was worse because I hadn't slept at all last night. I couldn't get those dark, hypnotic eyes out of my head. I couldn't get Edward out of my head, and I felt like a fool because of it. And yet, I had stayed up the entire night painting him. It was miserable because I had fallen asleep standing up during gym and had been knocked over several times by a silly volley ball. But most of all, it was worse because Edward wasn't in school. He wasn't sitting at his table with his family in the lunchroom, and he wasn't in Biology either.

I should've been relieved, but I wasn't. The fact that he wasn't in school angered me, and made him cowardly in my opinion. I wanted to know what the hell his problem was, and why he was all I could see when I sat down to paint. If he had at least shown up and apologized, then maybe he wouldn't be such a dick. But he didn't; instead, he'd skipped school altogether.

"Better day?" Savannah asked as we piled into the old red truck.

I shrugged. "I guess."

As soon as we got home, I went upstairs to work on my still unfinished painting.

I skipped dinner that night, too exhausted to eat, and got in the shower to wash the paint from my body instead. After about fifteen minutes under the hot spray, I got out and dried off and dressed myself in pajamas.

My reflection in the mirror told me that Forks was doing bad things to my body and mind. My eyes were a bit puffy from lack of sleep, and I looked paler-if that was even possible.

With a sigh, I turned off the lights and headed back down the hall to my room.

"Is he the reason you aren't liking Forks?" Savannah asked as I walked into my bedroom.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard her voice, and my heart shot into over drive.

She was sitting on the foot of my bed, her eyes locked on the painting I'd been working on for the past two days.

It was still a diamond in the rough, but I was proud of how it was turning out. I had painted him how I saw him. Dark, angry, mysterious...perfect. His hair was a fiery reddish brown, and his skin held the faintest hint of peach mixed with white. But his eyes were where the emotions were. Two dark, hate-filled orbs in the center of white, framed with light lashes.

"There's so much pain and anger..." Savannah mumbled. She raised her hand to touch it, but stopped after remembering it was wet. "Why did you paint this beautiful boy as a monster?" she asked me curiously.

I crossed the room to sit beside her and cautiously lowered my head to her shoulder. "Because that's how he acted around me," I replied through a yawn. "Edward Cullen hates me, but ignores everyone else."

Savannah let out a soft sight and gently brushed her fingers through my damp hair. "Don't let whatever Edward says get to you."

"That's just it though, he doesn't say anything, he just glares. He doesn't know anything about me, yet he hates my guts." I sniffed back my frustrated tears. "Why does he hate me Savannah?"

"I don't know sweetie, normally he and the rest of his family don't even pay enough attention to people to hate them, let alone like them." She placed a quick kiss to my forehead and stood up. "You should sleep, you're tired."

I smiled halfheartedly and climbed up my mattress and under my Hello Kitty blanket. "Night."

"Goodnight." She flicked off the light and closed the door, leaving me alone in the darkness.

That night I was finally able to fall asleep and actually sleep through the entire night without tossing or turning in my bed.

The rest of the week was uneventful. I fell into the routine of going to my classes and by Friday I was even able to recognize a few people from the table I sat at in my classes.

Edward Cullen didn't come back to school the entire week, and left me with the only memory I could paint him from.

But I still watched the doors at lunch anxiously until the rest of his family entered the lunchroom without him. Savannah seemed to notice that I kept looking for him, but she never said anything, she just smiled sadly and made sure I was involved in the conversations when I finally gave up on looking for Edward. Mostly the group's discussions were centered around a beach trip Mike was putting together down at La Push. I was invited, but I wasn't allowed to decline because Savannah wanted me to meet a few guys down there and she just wouldn't take no for an answer.

My very first weekend in Forks passed quickly. Savannah and I stayed in and I worked on the painting of Edward that I had been obsessing over while she sat on my bed with a few bags of munchies and watched me work.

I talked to my mother a few times on the phone, along with my fourteen year old brother as well. I made sure they both knew I was happy, even though I wasn't completely satisfied with how my life was turning out.

The nights began to get colder, which began to worry me. I had left Marquette to escape the snow, I didn't want to have to see more of it. The rain was better than the snow, though I preferred it to just be cold and not wet.

Monday morning I was greeted by strangers in the parking lot. I didn't know all their names; and by the look Savannah gave me, neither did she. But we waved politely and then split up for the day to go to our classes.

Mike and Eric took their seats on either side of me, both of them trying to capture my attention during English, but I just ignored them and doodled in my notebook.

"How come you aren't like some famous artist yet?" Eric asked.

I perked up, flattered by his words. 'I'm not really that good," I replied honestly, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks.

Mike scowled at him, obviously jealous that I was talking to Eric instead of him.

"Are you kidding? You're like the best I've ever seen."

Not even five minutes later, we were walking out of the class into damp air that was full of swirling flakes.

"Wow, it's snowing!" Mike exclaimed, his face lighting up.

And just like that, my good mood had shattered. "Ew."

He looked surprised. "You don't like the snow?"

I laughed humorlessly. "Have you ever been to Marquette before?" He shook his head. "It snows for nearly half the year, and it isn't light like this stuff either. It's all heavy and we get entire feet of it instead of mere inches."

Mike rolled his eyes with a boyish grin. And then a big ball of white mush nailed him in the back of his head. I quickly turned to see where it had come from, my senses sharpening in case of attack. Eric was laughing with his back to us, walking in the wrong direction of his class.

"Catcha later Swan," Mike called out as he ran after Eric with a small pile of half melted snow in his right hand.

By the time lunch rolled around, I was alert and on my toes watching for any attackers after Lauren had thrown a few snow balls at me between classes. I had gotten her back harder though. I mean really, what'd she expect? I grew up throwing snow balls. My birthday was the coldest month of the year. I was like the winter ninja or something crazy like that.

Her numbers might've been greater, but I had way more experience when it came to the snow.

She was afraid to go anywhere near me by the lunchtime, and I was glad. I was happy I had made her hair turn all frizzy and that her make-up ran down her cheeks because I'd gotten her in the face so many times.

Savannah laughed when she heard what I'd done. Mike and Eric caught up to us as we made our way into the cafeteria, both laughing hysterically as we got in line to buy food.

Out of habit, my eyes darted over to the table in the far corner, not expecting to see the boy I so desperately wanted to be sitting there. But he was, and I froze to recount the number.

Nope, I hadn't forgotten how to count. There were five people at that table today.

"Cassie? Hey, you alright?" Savannah asked worriedly, tugging on my sleeve.

I looked down at my feet, feeling my face starting to burn up. I haven't done anything wrong. I reminded myself confidently. If anything, he should be feeling this way.

Raising my head to meet Savannah's curious eyes, I sucked in a deep breath. "I'm fine, just got a little dizzy there, that's all," I lied.

"What's wrong with Cassie?" Eric asked, his voice laced with unnecessary concern.

"Nothing," I repeated. "You guys go ahead, I'm just going to get a soda today."

Savannah's eyes narrowed disapprovingly. "You need to eat, you've been skipping out on meals all week."

I ignored her and crossed the room to the vending machine to get a Pepsi. I waited for them to get their food and then followed Savannah and the two boys with my can of pop to a table.

I sipped my soda slowly, running the tip of my finger along the can's rim while I did and tried to focus on what I was currently doing instead of the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach.

All week my anger had been building, each night I'd been haunted by those cold black eyes, and I blamed him for everything. And yet, I was too much of a coward now to look up and glare at Edward like he'd done to me. I actually had a reason, and yet I didn't bother to act on it.

Just one look. If he's angry again I'll march right up to him and demand to know what his problem is. Screw being pleasant.

But I kept my head down anyway, only looking with my eyes. None of them were looking at me, so I raised my head up a little higher to get a better look.

They were all laughing. Emmett, Jasper, and Edward all had their hair saturated with the slush from outside. Rosalie and Alice were leaning away from Emmett as he shook his dripping hair towards them. I could've sworn that the shorter girl Alice had looked at me again, but here eyes left my face too quickly for me to be sure. It seemed like they were enjoying the snow like the other students.

But aside from their laughter, it looked like something was different with them. I couldn't quite pinpoint the difference to just one thing. I examined Edward the closest and the most carefully. His skin looked less pale, maybe flushed from the snow fight, and the bruise-like shadows beneath his eyes weren't as noticeable either. But there was something more...something I felt that I should've noticed right off the bat.

"Cassie? What are you staring at?" Savannah asked, her green eyes following mine.

At that moment, his eyes flickered over to meet mine.

I dropped my gaze to the table though, incase he was glaring again. But I was almost positive that in the small frame of time that our eyes had met, Edward hadn't glared at me or even looked at me in any unfriendly kind of way like he had in Biology last week. He just seemed curious, almost looking unsatisfied in some sort of way.

"Edward Cullen is staring at you," she whispered in my ear, a hard edge in her tone.

Reluctantly, I lifted my eyes from my soda can to meet hers. "Does he still look angry?"

Her eyes left mine for a brief second, looking over the top of my head at the stranger who had damaged my fragile feelings, before finally returning to my face. "No, but he's still staring at you."

My hands began to tremble. "Please don't look at him," I pled. "I don't want him thinking I went home crying to your mom or something."

Savannah shrugged, her jaw tightening. "I don't want him to walk all over you."

I laughed shakily. "Who have I ever let walk over me?" I questioned.

She rolled her eyes, turning her focus on the sandwich she'd gotten. "Apparently Edward."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded, my voice taking on a defensive tone.

"You've been off your game for quite awhile now. I noticed it after I drove us home that first day," she replied, taking a small bite.

I wanted to ask Savannah more questions, but Mike and Eric interrupted-they were planning some huge snow ball fight after school and both of them wanted Savannah and I on their teams since we'd grown up where snow was actually expected. I agreed, but my heart wasn't really in it.

I kept my eyes on my own table for the rest of the lunch hour even though I could feel Edward staring at me from across the room. My stomach was doing nervous flip-flops at the thought of having to sit next to him again in Biology.

"I'm going to head to class," I said abruptly, pushing my chair back as I stood.

Seven pairs of eyes flew to mine in confusion.

"Cassie, we still have another ten minutes before class starts," Savannah told me, reaching up to wrap her fingers around the sleeve of my rain coat, and gently tugged to try and get me to sit down next to her again.

"Oh I know," I lied quickly. Shit, another ten fucking minutes? "I have to go back to the truck to get a few things anyway." The last part actually wasn't a lie. I needed to grab my Biology book and sketch pad from the passenger seat.

She didn't really seem convinced, but everyone else was eating my lie up and Savannah knew better than to pick a fight with me when there was an audience. I always won.

With a reassuring smile, I grabbed my empty soda can and headed to the trash cans, silently cursing Edward Cullen and his effect on me as I went.

What the hell am I supposed to do in an empty classroom for ten freaking minutes? I thought with a low groan. Especially knowing that he could walk in any minute?

"Stupid," I muttered as I spun around to face the doors, nearly walking straight into the pixie girl Alice.

We just barely avoided crashing into each other.

Heat rose to my cheeks as I realized that our almost collision was all my fault. "Shit I'm sorry," I said quickly. "Are you alright?"

Her eyes flashed with amusement as she dumped her untouched food into the garbage. "I'm fine," she replied in a high soprano voice. "Are you?"

No. But she wasn't asking how I felt, just about if I'd sprained my ankle or something.

"Yeah," I mumbled, forcing out a smile.

And that's when I finally realized the difference I'd been obsessing over.

Her eyes! My gaze flew to her table. It's their eyes, that's what's different.

Instead of the piercing black, their eyes were all a warm golden hue.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Alice was already leaving, a small dance in her step as she fled from the cafeteria.

Savannah had watched the whole exchange, a frown pulling at her full lips as she reached for her juice box.

I just shrugged indifferently and hurried out of the crowded lunchroom.

It had stopped snowing, but it was now raining instead.

"Great," I grumbled, pulling my hood up over my head before jogging out from under the shelter of the cafeteria's roof.

I sat in the cab of the truck for a few minutes, shivering as I pulled my iPod from my bag.

How did their eyes change? I wondered as I slipped in the ear buds. Contacts maybe? I shook my head, scrolling down to the song I wanted. No, I can normally see contacts when I'm close enough. And I had nearly fell on that poor girl, so we'd definitely been close enough. There hadn't been contacts in her eyes.

I could remember the angry boy from last week perfectly, but he wasn't like that today.

You mean hopefully he isn't like that today. My thoughts corrected me.

I nodded, agreeing with myself, and slipped back out into the rain, my text book and drawing pad hidden safely in my book bag.

I didn't want to be the only one in Biology room when I got there, but I also didn't want to be out in the freezing rain either. So I hurried across campus and ran into the dry room.

"I'll tell you a secretI hope you can keep itI hope you can keep my secret closeDon't tell a soulNow tell a soulI've been waiting just to see thisI've been waiting to let this out..."

(Watch Me Make You Hate Me by Call the Cops)

"Miss Swan, you're early," Mr. Banner said in a frightened voice.

I pulled out one head phone to be polite and smiled. "Sorry if I startled you."

Mr. Banner had been walking around the room, distributing one microscope and a box of slides to each table. "Do you mind helping me set up since you're here early?"

Oh the joys of being a good person.

"No problem, what do you need me to do?" I placed my bag over the back of my chair and turned the volume down slightly.

He smiled hesitantly and handed me a stack of worksheets. "Do you mind passing these out for today's lab?"

"Not at all."

It's better than having to deal with my thoughts. I reminded myself as I took the papers from his hands and began dropping one packet off to every lab table.

"So where are you from Cassie?" Mr. Banner asked in a conversational tone.

"Um, Marquette," I replied cautiously. I knew he was only trying to be nice, but the last thing I needed was an over excited teacher.

"Where's that?" He seemed nervous about asking. Like he felt bad for non knowing where it was. It didn't really bother me, barely anyone knew of the U.P.

"It's in Michigan," I answered, fighting laughter. "In the U.P."

"Ah, so you're a yooper, eh?"

I didn't believe in the stereotype that came from being a yooper, mostly because it never applied to me. I didn't believe in hunting animals just for sport like most people did, or even to bring down the population.

"I've met with some of the teachers from there," Mr. Banner continued. "Such strange people..."

Other students were beginning to filter in so I hurriedly passed out the papers and sat back down in my seat, pulling my drawing pad out from my bag and putting away my iPod as I did so.

Don't focus on the door. I chanted repeatedly as I sketched a quick pattern on one side of an old drawing.

It was a hard thing to do, but I managed to keep my attention on the pattern.

I heard when the chair next to me scraped against the tile floor as it was moved, but even then I didn't look up.

"Hello," said a soft, musical voice.

My pencil fell from my clumsy fingers and my eyes flew to his in shock. He still sat as far away from me as the table would allow, but he'd angled his chair towards me this time. His hair was dripping wet from the rain, but still perfectly disheveled. Surprisingly, he didn't strike me as mad. In fact, his face was open and friendly, but his strange colored eyes were still guarded.

"My name is Edward Cullen," he continued when I didn't respond. "I'm sorry I didn't get to introduce myself last week. You must be Cassie Swan."

He knows my name? I stared into his tawny eyes, confused and slightly dazzled. Did I make the whole thing up?

"You were gone," was all I managed to say.

"Family emergency." His tone was clipped, making his reply sound rehearsed.

"Bull shit," I muttered to myself, refocusing on my sketch. The pattern had somehow transformed into some kind of plant made up of tiny detailed drawings.

"Excuse me?" he asked, sounding amused by my bad language.

I glanced back over at him, and then back at my drawing. "Nothing."

"If you say so." He let it drop.

Thankfully, Mr. Banner started the class. I listened carefully as he explained the lab we would be doing. The slides in our boxes were all out of order and we had to separate them into the phases of mitosis with our lab partners and then label them correctly on our worksheets. We couldn't use our books-though I knew some people would-and he'd be coming around to check in a half hour or so.

"Get started," he commanded, clapping his hands together excitedly.

I rolled my eyes at his enthusiasm.

"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked.

I looked up to find him smiling a crooked smile so breathtaking I could only stare like an idiot. The anger I felt towards him had completely dissolved, which worried me.

Maybe I am off my game a little bit.

"Or I could start if you want." His smile faded.

"No, I can do it," I said, still half engrossed in my thoughts.

I'd already done this lab before, so I knew what I was looking for, and decided to show off a tiny bit.

I carefully placed the slide under the microscope and rose up a little from my chair to study it.

"Prophase," I said confidently, reaching to remove the slide.

"Do you mind if I look?" He wasn't really asking my permission since he quickly stopped my hand with his own. His skin was ice-cold against my warm flesh, and my hand stung when he touched me, like some kind of electrical current had passed through from him to me.

I nearly jumped out of my seat at the contact, and I could've sworn I saw Edward jump slightly as well.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, releasing my hand and pulling back immediately. However, he still reached for the microscope. He examined the slide for an even shorter time than I had. "Prophase," he agreed, writing it down neatly in the first space on our worksheet. I watched his long pale fingers as they held the pencil delicately, like it was the most fragile thing in the world, and wondered why he didn't just hold the damn thing like everyone else did.

He swiftly switched out the slides and then peeked into the microscope. "Anaphase," he murmured, his voice like velvet, as he wrote it down.

"May I?"

He grinned and pushed the microscope towards me.

I looked into the eyepiece, hoping to whatever God there was that I would be given the chance to prove him wrong. But disappointment washed over me when I realized he was right.

"Slide three?" I held my hand out blindly, waiting.

Being careful not to touch me, he dropped the slide in my palm.

"Interphase," I said, passing him the microscope before he could ask.

A small smile pulled at the corners of his flawless lips as he peeked at the slide and then wrote down the answer I'd given him in a script that made my toes curl.

We'd finished before anyone else in the class had even come close. Mike and his partner kept comparing the same two slides over and over again, looking more and more confused by the second, and the group beside us had their book open beneath their table.

I glanced up when I felt his eyes on me, to find the same frustrated look on his face that seemed to always be there now. It wasn't an angry look, it just made it seem like I wasn't meeting some expectation he had or something.

"Did you get contacts?" I blurted out, still confused by the drastic change in his eye color.

He cocked his head to one side slightly, puzzled by my unexpected word vomit. "No."

"There's something different about your eyes..." I trailed off, hoping that he would jump in and explain things but he didn't. He just shrugged indifferently and looked out the window.

"So Edward, didn't you think it would've been nice for Cassie to have gotten a chance with the microscope?" I nearly flew right off my chair from the suddenness of Mr. Banner's voice.

"Actually she identified three out of the five," Edward replied, sounding uninterested.

"Have you done this lab before?" he asked me.

I gave him a small smile and nodded. "Not with the onion root though."

His thick eyebrows rose in surprise. "Whitefish blastula?" he guessed.

"Yeah."

"Were you in some kind of advanced placement program back in your home town?"

"I was taking college level Biology if that's what you're asking," I replied, my cheeks bursting into hot flames. Edward seemed to shy away from me when I blushed.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you and Edward are lab partners then." He mumbled something else under his breath that I didn't quite catch and then left to go check on the other students.

After I was sure he was gone, I flipped to a blank page and began to draw the outline of Edward's frame as he sat hunched over our lab table, his face resting on in his palm with the other hand balled up in a tight fist on his leg.

"It's a shame the snow melted, isn't it?" Edward asked, his eyes following the drops of rain as they rolled down the glass.

"Not really," I answered as I lazily began to fill in the little details on my sketch of him.

"Do you not like the cold?"

"No I love it. I'm just not a big fan of snow and rain."

"Your friend, Savannah right?" He peeked back at me and I nodded. "Why did you come to live with her?"

No one had asked me that question so openly. Eric and Mike had both hinted at it, and Lauren had some up with rumors, but no one really asked for it in the form of a demand like he did.

I set down my pencil and slowly lifted my eyes to meet his. "It's pretty complicated."

"I'm sure I can keep up," he pressed.

Should I tell him? I wondered as my thoughts snapped back to the day he'd been a total dick to me. I normally didn't open up to people, not even that much to Savannah. But for some strange reason I wanted to explain everything to someone and get it off my chest. And not just anyone, I wanted to tell Edward Cullen.

"My mother is getting married in the spring," I whispered, my eyes searching to make sure no one was listening.

"That doesn't sound very complex," he disagreed. "Lots of people get remarried."

I shook my head and quickly closed my sketch pad. "She isn't getting remarried, this is her first time," I explained.

"So she's marrying your father." It was a question.

I scowled at the mention of my father, which seemed to confuse Edward even further. "No, I'm not on speaking terms with my father," I replied, my jaw tight.

"You're right, this is kind of complicated."

I grimaced. "Told you so."

"I still want to know though."

And I want to tell you. I replied internally. But why do I?

"Well Savannah and I have been best friends since the first grade; we did everything together. A few years back she came here to live with her mom and new little brother and left me behind in Marquette. I didn't understand how she could just up and leave so easily, and I was young so I had thought it was because of me..." I cut off my rambling and decided to stick to the story. "It took some time but I finally found a group of trustworthy friends by freshman year, but last summer my mother's boyfriend of five years finally proposed."

"And you don't like him...?" he asked when I stopped talking.

"Allan's fine, he's nearly eleven years older than my mom, but he's nice." I bit my lip and began drawing in the margins of our worksheet. I couldn't stand to look Edward in the eyes any longer. he kept looking at me like my life was important to him, even though it wasn't to me.

"That still doesn't really explain how you ended up here of all places," Edward murmured, his velvety soft voice laced with frustration.

I let out a small sigh and pressed the lead of my pencil firmer into the paper. "Allan's kids are who I don't get along with," I continued. "Our maturity levels are just too different and I couldn't stand to be around them more than I had to be. But with my mother and him getting married... Well, we would move into his house and I just couldn't. I didn't want to have to go to the same school as them, and I refused to have to leave every one of my new friends behind." I glanced up at him, smiling halfheartedly. "You probably think I'm selfish, but really I'm not. Me leaving was the best thing I could've done for my mother."

His eyebrow knit together in confusion. "She's your mother, I'm sure she misses you and loves you."

I shook my head sadly and continued to draw abstract images along the margins. "That's just it though, she doesn't. She's told me time and time again how different I am, and how depressed I seem to the rest of the family," I paused to collect my thoughts, and then looked around at the people surrounding us again.

"No one's listening Cassie," Edward told me quietly, his expression turning sympathetic.

"I left to keep my mother happy," I mumbled. "She wanted a fresh start at life, and I didn't. So I came here to live with Savannah since she was my only option." I realized then that I could've just said that from the very beginning without having to bear my soul, and ducked my head in embarrassment.

"What would make you so unhappy?" he wondered aloud.

I shrugged, deciding that I'd said enough for one day. For one lifetime actually. I couldn't remember if I'd ever talked so much in my entire life.

"Am I annoying you?" he asked, sounding amused.

"I'm not used to speaking so much, normally people don't ask questions about me and I just go on with my life and so do they," I admitted.

"Does it bother you that I'm interested in how you got here?"

Did it? I honestly didn't know for sure.

"Nobody ever has been so I can't say for sure how I feel." That seemed like a safe answer, right?

"Did you move here to keep you happy?" Edward questioned, his eyes following the lines my pencil created.

"That's part of the reason," I answered.

"But you're not happy."

I'm never truly happy. I thought dryly.

"No answer?" He laughed softly and the sound thrilled me like it shouldn't.

"It wasn't a question," I answered flatly.

He just laughed again and leaned back away from me, his eyes still following the designs I made.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked, trying to ignore the way his hand tensed into tight fists again.

"That depends," he replied cautiously.

"It's a simply question, nothing too personal like yours was," I told him reassuringly.

His lips twitched in response and he nodded his head in approval.

I stopped drawing and lifted my head up to look at him. "Why did you ask me about why I came here? I mean, why do you care?"

The gold in his eyes blazed with emotion, but his face remained perfectly calm. "I don't really know," he admitted. "Maybe it's because your a little difficult for me to read."

I laughed once without humor and returned to our worksheet. "Funny, Savannah thinks of me as an open book." She could tell when things weren't going well for me even over a text message or a simple phone call.

Mr. Banner called the class to order then, and I left the papers alone and turned to pay attention, relief coursing through me. I couldn't believe that I had just explained my boring ass life to this gorgeous, bizarre boy who may or may not totally hate me. He'd seemed interested in our conversation, but he'd moved away from me again to grip the edge of the granite table top in his hands again.

When the bell finally rang, Edward left just as swiftly and gracefully as he had last Monday, obviously desperate to leave the classroom.

Mike rushed to my side and picked up all of my books for me and put them into my bag.

"Cullen seemed friendly today," he commented as we slipped on our rain coats. Something told me he wasn't happy about it.

I shrugged indifferently. "Yeah I guess."

By the end of the day, the rain had quieted down to only a slight drizzle, but all of the snow had been washed away.

"How was Edward today?" Savannah asked as we walked across the lot to the truck.

"He was nice I guess. We talked a little bit," I replied as we quickly climbed up into the cab.

"Wait? He talked to you?" She turned on the heater and we both pulled our hoods down and fluffed our hair out so that we would be dry when we made it home.

"Well, he asked the questions I mostly just answered." Is it weird for him to talk?

Savannah shrugged and pulled out of the space, her green eyes tightening as we passed Edward getting into a silver Volvo with his family. "I don't trust him Cassie..."

"Maybe he was just PMSing or something last week," I offered. But I knew it wasn't true, he was still a bit cold in Biology.

Savannah seemed to realize this too, but she agreed anyway. "Maybe."

So? What'd you think? Interested in reading more? Leave me a review and I'll see what I can do.

Kat :)