EPOV

Lunch was a bore, as usual.

Alice jabbered on about our plans for the weekend while Jasper constructed a fort of sorts out of his fish sticks and mashed potatoes, eventually stealing a couple of carrots from me.

I looked at him questioningly. "Cannons," he said, as though it should've been common knowledge. Cannons. I nodded. Of course.

Rosalie was nodding along with Alice, talking about bathing suits and whether it'd be necessary to bring wet suits, when Emmett came up, his tray overloaded with food. The man ate like he was 8 months along and packing twins.

"Hey, baby," he boomed down at her with a smile. She returned his smile before nodding at Alice to continue. He sat his tray down and turned his attention to me after he managed to steal a quick kiss from Rose.

"Cullen," he muttered in a low voice. "New girl. Find her. Hit it."

"Emmett!" Rosalie hissed, glaring at him.

"What? Cullen needs some ass. We all know it."

I rolled my eyes. "Thank you, Emmett, for proving once again that you are an over-sexed caveman."

He grinned, and agreed with a nod. "Anytime, bro. But seriously," he glanced at Rose, his face full of apology, but she just continued to shoot daggers at him with her eyes. "Seek and destroy. She's a fucking ba—" he caught himself quickly. "She's a very… uh… presentable young woman."

Rosalie rolled her eyes, and continued her chat with Alice, who was getting more excited as their talk went on. We were supposed to be going to La Push this weekend, to get fucked up and do a bonfire on the beach. Assuming it didn't rain. Which, in Washington, is always something to be taken into consideration when making plans. But the forecast had been promising that there would be little to no rain this weekend, and Alice had jumped at the chance to go to the beach.

"A girl doesn't get to go swimming here very often," she'd stated when I had asked why she was insisting on going all the way to La Push just to get drunk. She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and I suppose I seemed like an idiot for not getting it, but swimming was the lastthing I thought about doing around here.

"Emmett. I don't know who you're talking about, but—" I paused momentarily, amused by the exploding noises Jasper was making. "I doubt she's that fuckable. I don't stick my dick just wherever anymore. Not after last summer. I thought I told you that."

Emmett raised an eyebrow, a smug look on his face. A look that said, 'yeah, right. Wait till you fucking see her.'

"Whatever," I rolled my eyes. I picked absently at my food, a slight wave of nausea coming over me. "If new girl is such hot shit, point her out so I can judge for myself."

I honestly didn't care, though, because she wouldn'tbe that hot. None of the girls around here were, given the exception of Rosalie. Alice was beautiful, too, but Alice was family. Alice was not hot. The nausea flared up again, and I worked to squash it back down.

Part of the reason I hadn't had sex in so long was that I was bored of what Forks had to offer. Call me cocky, but my cock wanted better. He deservedbetter. He could only take so much of Lauren imadrunkenfuckingilliterate Mallory and Jessica icryduringsex Stanley.

"Can't," Emmett shrugged, removing me from my thoughts. I gave him a skeptical look, and he shrugged again. "She's in the library. Said she wanted to check some stuff out."

My mind toyed with this idea for a moment. New girl is—supposedly—hot, andshe likes books? Hmm. Perhaps she'll be a nice surprise, after all. My dick must've heard me, because he stirred slightly.

Nope, little buddy. Not yet. We've yet to meet this new girl, and she probably isn't even close to what Emmett is making her out to be.

After all, Emmett had recently ranted for three hours about how Pamela Anderson still looked like a goddess. My dick slumped back down, thoroughly offended by that image.

Goddess my ass.

BPOV

The library was beyond disappointing. It seemed only slightly larger than one of the classrooms, which I immediately took to be a bad sign. The selection was minimal, at best, and contained ridiculous books that I could swear were written for ten year olds.

I realized that my collection at home was far superior, and nearly gave up until I found a battered copy of the Marquis de Sade's Justine half hidden behind some math text books.

Nice.

I flipped it open, and found that it wasn't a library copy. So, either someone had left it there by mistake, or it was merely a gift from the literary Gods planted there specifically for me.

Either way, I was pleased that I would have something to get me through the rest of the day, not to mention something that could give me a serious set of ideas for doodle time with Emmett.

***

P.E. came after lunch, and I managed to not embarrass myself. Mike was in my class, and he followed me around, much to my amusement. I supposed that things could still work out between us.

I reallyneeded a fucking outlet. A fucking fucking outlet, to be precise.

After P.E. I had English. English was fairly boring, which disappointed me. InPhoenix, English had been one of my favorite classes. Then again, Justin's wandering hands had been in English… Jessica sat next to me in this class, too, which was the only redeeming thing about it. The class still blew, though. The most interesting thing that happened was some bitch named Lauren had given me a ridiculous third degree when she'd heard someone named Tyler had flirted with me. I remembered him from my ceramics class this morning. He'd laughed when I'd formed a roundish lump with my clay and asked if it was okay to make a soccer ball.

A.P. History came next, which excited me. I really, genuinely enjoyed history. I hoped that the class would truly be on an A.P. level, and that I would actually learn something. I found myself in the room before any of the other students had arrived, and the teacher was rushing out.

"I'll be back!" he called over his shoulder. Right. He had been clutching his stomach, his eyes wide. Should've laid off the grease sticks, Mr. Whoeveryouare.

I sat at a desk towards the back, hoping I wasn't stealing someone's seat. I didn't want to be asked to move. Not that I would. After I set my things down, I noticed a small heart carved into the lower right corner. Inside the heart were the initials J+A. I wrinkled my nose in distaste. How tacky.

My head snapped up as the door opened, and a tiny, beautiful girl danced in. A tall, equally attractive, lanky guy with sandy blonde hair followed behind her, holding her hand and smiling at her, looking slightly dazed. It was no wonder; the girl looked like she could be a super model. She had a short black bob and light gray eyes, and a slight golden tan I hadn't thought possible in Forks.

She stopped when she saw me, a smile coming over her face. Here we go. I hoped she wasn't going to give me the third degree I'd come to expect today.

"Hello, you must be the new girl," she extended a tiny hand to me as she made her way back to where I was sitting. I nodded; what was it with these people and shaking hands?

"That's me," I said lamely. A touch of skepticism marred my voice, but she either didn't notice or didn't care, because she started speaking again immediately.

"This is Jasper, and I'm Alice," she beamed brightly at the lanky boy. I allowed myself another peak, fully taking him in. He was pretty hot, too. He had this funky, I'm-a-rockstar thing going on. He saluted me much the same way Emmett had done to the teacher this morning, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm Bella," I said, realization hitting me as Jasper poked Alice in the side, causing her to squeal and swat at him. J+A.

"Miss Bella, you're in my seat," Jasper nodded to where I was sitting. I made a move to get up—he was nice enough to move for—but he shook his head. "Nope, darlin,' you stay put. A gentleman never takes a seat from a lady; on the contrary, he should offer up his own." At that, he reached across Alice, took my hand, and kissed it softly. I gaped at him, blushing and confused, while Alice took the seat next to me, laughing softly.

"Jasper's from Texas," she explained, adoration ringing clear in her voice. "He's a real southern boy."

Jasper released my hand and smiled at first me, then Alice, and sat in the seat on the other side of her, absently taking her hand in his own. "Now you take care of that there heart, Miss Bella."

I looked down at the little J+A, and couldn't help but smile. They weren't tacky, I decided. They were… adorable. Ugh. What the fuck?

Students filtered in while Alice and I chatted, and I realized immediately that I was pretty much in love with the pretty little pixie girl. She was sweet, funny, and bubbly. She reminded me of my best friend Samantha, back home. I had to resist the urge to hug her several times—she just seemed very huggable. We talked about Phoenix and my move to Forks, and how I was fairing so far. I adored the way she carried the conversation—she didn't make it about herself, didn't push too hard and had exactly the right prompts.

The teacher didn't make it back until there was only twenty minutes of the class left. He hastily wrote the homework on the board, apologizing when the class groaned at how much reading had to be done, before disappearing again. The class continued on with their loud conversations, but I was almost entirely oblivious to them since I was so caught up in my conversation withAlice.

She turned to me once he was gone again, practically vibrating in her seat. I glanced at Jasper, who was writing in a battered looking notebook. There was a stern look of concentration on his face as he scribbled, but I couldn't read a word of it because he wrote tiny. He still had one hand on Alice at all times, on her hand, or on her thigh, but it didn't strike me as possessive in the slightest. At one point he'd reached up and tugged on a strand of her hair, and she'd playfully swatted his hand away and stuck her tongue out at him. He'd responded by tapping her on the nose and telling her to mind her mouth. I was amazed at how different they were, yet it was clear from just these last 40 minutes that they were deeply in love.

Lucky them.

"Bella, we're going to La Push this weekend. We're going to have a picnic and bonfire and there's going to be a considerable amount of alcohol, assuming Emmett can get it—" she stopped when she saw me perk up at the mention of Emmett, then shared a meaningful look with Jasper.

"What?" I asked, running a hand self-consciously through my hair.

"Nothing," she shrugged. "Emmett mentioned you at lunch."

"He did?" I felt my heart pick up a little, and hope began filtering into the parts of my brain that acted entirely on impulse.

Alice's eyes seemed to recognize the hint of longing in my voice, because her bright face suddenly became very serious. "Emmett has a girlfriend, Bella."

"I know," I dropped my head, blushing slightly. "I'm not going to make any moves on him, I swear." Not that I don't want to, I amended mentally. "He's funny, and a really nice guy, though." Jasper snickered at this for reasons I didn't know, then went back to his writing, humming softly.

I stared at him questioningly, but before I could say anything, Alice smiled in relief and continued on. "Oh, of course not, not that I thought you would, just had to be sure you knew. Anyways, so we're going to La Push, and, weather permitting: bonfire, booze, food, swimming." She counted all of these things on her little fingers, then paused, suddenly thoughtful. "Possibly not in that order." We both laughed at this. "So, anyway, Bella, would you like to come? Jazz and I will be there, and Emmett and Rose," I cringed inwardly at the mention of her name, "and my cousin, too. What do you say?"

I almost wanted to think of an excuse; Emmett's girlfriend would be there, and I didn't want to cause any waves. Because I really reallywanted to fuck him. I just had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't that girl anymore. Plus,Alice's eyes were glittering with some secret excitement, and I just couldn't find it in me to say no to her.

"Okay," I agreed. Fuck this Rose bitch.

"Excellent!" she clapped her small hands together. Jasper looked up at me and nodded his approval with a small smile, pleased that I had made Alice happy. Something told me his main mission in life was to make her happy.

Alice whipped out her phone and looked at me expectantly. I got momentarily confused before saying, "Oh!" a little too loudly. Alice's laughter tinkled in the air, and I suppressed a giggle of my own. I told her my number, and as soon as I was done, she pressed the call button.

"You're a fucking ugly bitch. I want to stab you to death, and play around with your—"

I yanked my phone out of my pocket, hitting the silence button, eyes wide. A boy sitting two seats over was staring at me with eyes that matched my own, confusion crossing his face. I shrugged and turned to Alice, who also had a confused look on her face. Jasper was chuckling, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

"Why, Miss Bella, I do believe you're the most amazing person I've met in the last five years." If I hadn't heard the honesty in his statement, I might've thought he was being sarcastic. Alice frowned at him, but it was clear that it was out of confusion rather than jealousy. This made me happy; I really likedAlice, and I would've hated for her to think that I was in any way after Jasper—regardless of how attractive or charming he was.

"That's from American Psycho, remember? When they're in the club, early on," he was still chuckling as he said this, brushing a stray hair from Alice's face. Her face lit up with recognition, and she nodded. She crinkled her nose slightly, then turned fully back to me.

"That's one of Jasper's favorite movies, too." I grinned at him, and he winked in return.

"Have you read the book?" He nodded, stretching forward.

"Love Ellis," he said simply. I nodded in agreement, pleased that I had found someone else that enjoyed his writing. Most people I'd met (at least of my peers) either had no idea it was a book, or couldn't deal with the descriptions it contained.

Alice perked up again when she glanced at the clock, realizing class was about to be over. "Bella, we'll talk more about this tomorrow." The excitement in her voice was catching. "And don't hesitate to call if you have any questions, k?"

I nodded, happy that I'd made another friend. Who, of course, happened to be friends with the only other friend I'd made so far. The world was being far too generous to me right now, but I'd take what I could get. I responded with the most genuine thanks I could. She smiled happily at me, and the bell rang. We all got up to leave, Jasper being towed by Alice once again.

"See you tomorrow!" she called over her shoulder. Jasper turned and grinned at me, saluting me once again. "Miss Bella," he drawled, and I couldn't help it, I blushed like a schoolgirl. He chuckled and winked again, then followed Aliceout into the crowd.

I pulled out my schedule for the final time. I'd given up on trying to memorize it, but I all ready knew what was coming.

Biology.

I sighed for the umpteenth time today. I had all ready finished biology at home in Phoenix. I knew all about cells and reproduction, I'd dissected frogs and pigs, and I'd been in an advanced Physics class before moving here. There must have been a scheduling error here or something.

I pulled out the copy of JustineI'd found earlier, glad to have something to occupy me during the bore that biology was sure to be.

I made a mental note to get my schedule fixed after school. I was positive there was nothing that could compel me enough to repeat that class.

EPOV

I walked into biology, still slightly disappointed that I had yet to see the new girl. Emmett would be wrong, of course, but it couldn't hurt to dream a bit. Not to mention I was horny as hell. And if she were even remotely attractive…

I settled into my seat and leaned back, my legs stretched out in front of me.

Biology wasn't the most interesting thing in the world. It comes naturally to me, though, and I always get the best grades in the class, so Banner let's me sit alone and do as I please most days. Our silent agreement is that I do well, and he turns a blind eye to my boredom. Works for us.

As I stared at my desk, Banner began bantering on about cell structure, and I immediately tuned him out. I knew this shit like the back of my hand. I probably even understood it better than he did, but the class was mandatory and there were no high courses offered. If I really wanted any sort of challenge, I'd have to enroll in night classes over at Peninsula College. I had considered this for a while, if for no other reason than to get some credits out of the way early, but vetoed the idea quickly. I was young, still only in high school. I wanted to continue some semblance of beingyoung for at least a little while.

I considered pulling out a book, but couldn't decide what I wanted to read. I had two in my bag, both of which I was halfway through. I started drumming absently on my desk, considering which I'd prefer to read more, stopping when I realized the room had gone silent. I looked up—

And there she was. The new girl. Emmett was wrong. Presentable was definitely not the word I would use. Aesthetically pleasing. Sexy. Delicious. Lust-inducing. Fuckable. These are all words I would use to describe her.

She looked over to where I was sitting, her dark chocolate eyes meeting mine with clear interest. Her mouth opened slightly, and I felt my dick jump to attention without my permission. I realized that Banner was talking to her, telling her to sit next to me. Of course she would sit there, it was the only empty seat in the room. I appraised her as she walked slowly towards me, taking all of her in.

She had curled dark brown hair, which had a slightly messy, I've-just-been-fucked look to it. She had breasts that were just a little too full for her frame, and I had a strong desire to bury my face between them. She was perfectly proportioned height-wise, with neither legs nor torso being too long. She had full hips and a narrow waist, giving her the perfect hourglass.

My eyes traveled back up her frame to her face, and I saw that she had full, pouty lips. I immediately felt the urge to bite them. Above her lips was a perfect, slightly upturned nose. The nose of a bitch. My favorite kind.

I allowed my eyes to travel further up, meeting hers again. Their depth was astonishing for some reason, and I felt a sudden urge to swim in the secrets they held. They were framed by full, sexy dark lashes, which stood out against her creamy alabaster skin.

She maintained eye contact until she sat down carefully beside me, and I felt my cock twitch again as I caught her scent. She smelled like strawberries and something flowery that I couldn't name. She smelled delicious. I readjusted myself in my seat, wincing as my erection became more suffocated by the denim of my jeans. I moved my hands under the table, attempting to pull them down a little, but it didn't help much.

After she set her bag and all but one of her books down, she looked up at me. I wondered briefly if she tasted as good as she looked and smelled—

"Hello," she whispered in husky voice.

—and sounded.

"I'm Bella." Her voice was an octave lower now, and God help me, I wanted to bend her over the table right then and there. I leaned towards her, her strawberry flower scent assaulting my senses.

"Edward. It's a pleasure to meet you, Bella," I whispered. Her name rolled off my tongue. What a perfect name for her.

We were extremely close now, and the tension was electric. Her body heat was rolling towards me in waves, and I felt my hands clench into fists under the desk.

She returned my smirk. "Likewise," she whispered, giving me slight chills.

Oh. Fuck. Me.

I frowned when I noticed the book she was holding, recognizing the creases on the front cover instantly. I inclined my head towards it. "Where did you get that?" I raised my eyes to her own. She looked confused for a moment, then recognition found her as she looked down at the book.

"The library," she whispered. She looked questioningly at my face, which still held the frown. "Not a fan?"

I chuckled. Not a fan? Silly, clueless new girl.

"On the contrary. That," I pointed for emphasis, "is mine. I've been wondering what happened to it."

Her eyebrows raised and she sort of squinted.

"May I?" I motioned to the book. She nodded, skeptical.

I flipped to the 67th page, where a single word was highlighted.

"Fuck?" she whispered, amusement lighting up her face.

I nodded seriously. "It's the only place in the entire novel that the word appears."

She nodded in return, grinning. "I know."

I raised an eyebrow of my own; now it was my turn to be skeptical. She chose this moment to concede, however, shoving the book in my direction.

"You can have it back. I've got my own copy at home."

"If you'd like to borrow it—" I began, but she cut me off.

"No, thank you, I have my own."

My brow shot up again, and she mirrored the expression back to me. And that was the end of that conversation.

We spent the rest of the period in silence, staring, sizing each other up. We didn't say another word. She breathed deeply, occasionally biting her lip, occasionally reaching up to play with a strand of hair. I kept my hands in fists on the desk, afraid of what would happen if I unclenched them. I wondered if any of her movements were deliberate. She seemed like she could be calculating when it came to men, but I couldn't be completely certain. Women were difficult to read sometimes.

I wanted so badly to touch her… she smelled incredible, she read de Sade—that alone was impressive enough to make me hard—and I wanted desperately to hear that husky voice moaning my name.

When the bell rang, I gave her a final smirk before rushing out of the room. I walked quickly through the halls, sending Alice a text to get a ride home with Rosalie and Jasper or Emmett. I let her know I'd pick her up later if she decided to hang out with them, but that I had business to attend to. I left out the following facts:

1. I had to get to my car as quickly as possible.

2. I had to get home, again, as quickly as possible.

3. I had to take care of my dick. As quickly as fucking possible.

Endnotes: I suppose I should mention that the speed of these updates is merely because of what's all ready posted on Twilighted(dot)net. Once I'm caught up on chapters here, the updates will be less frequent. However, as I get deeper into the story, the chapters have gotten longer and longer... so... the updates may be worth the wait? Haha.

Feel free to voice any questions, concerns or comments... I, like anyone, love the feedback. :)