AN: Ok so I'm seriously embarrassed. I've been writing this at home and having problems with the internet, hence the wait on chpt 3. So then I started more at work and emailed what I had to my home email last night. Well I reread what I posted to refresh where I left off only to find out that it got messed up. So here I've spent an extra 30minutes fixing it and now I'm reposting it so it actually makes sense. Sorry sorry sorry again. Hopefully I'll get chpt 4 up soon.

Chapter 3

EPOV

Well the first day was finally over. I was on my way out to the car to meet up with my siblings and I was actually feeling pretty good. Normally I was the one who got picked on when we started at a new school, but here I had several females throwing themselves at me. Although none of them were anything like what I wanted in a girlfriend. Although not like I would know never having had one. I knew though if I did that she wouldn't be into picking on others or worried about her looks like Lauren and Jessica were. I'd definitely have to make sure they were aware tomorrow that I wasn't interested in them. My siblings would definitely get a kick out of that. I'm sure Emmet was surprised I didn't need him today. He's normally ready and on the look out for any ass poundings coming my way. I know Alice had a good day just by the way she was going on at lunch. Rosalie was complaining about some guy who kept hitting on her and how she'd turned him down several times already.

I reached the car and all I could hear was Alice prattling on about a girl she had met at her locker and then in her Spanish class. All Jasper did was sit back and smile at her. It amazed me how he was able to one put up with her hyper antics and two how well he balanced her with his calm quiet nature. As we piled in the car I could hear Alice still going on about her new friend as she referred to her as. It didn't surprise me. Out of all five of us Alice would be the first to make a friend. Rosalie was just to aloof for her own good sometimes, Emmet's size intimidated people at first until they found out how sweet and loving he is, Jasper is just very quiet and analyzes people first to see who is truly good and worthy of being a friend to, and well I'm normally picked on because of my quiet nature and choice of music and literature. Finally after hearing Alice go on for a few minutes Jasper asked what her new friend's name was. Alice just replied, "her name's Bella." So it seems my dear sister had also encountered the beautiful shy girl. May be Alice will get her out of her shell I laughed to myself.

Tuesday

The next day we arrived at school and I was looking forward to Trig class more so then normal. I couldn't wait to see Bella again and may be get to talk to her a bit more. May be I could talk her into sitting with me today at lunch if Alice hadn't already assaulted the poor girl and roped her into it. English dragged by for the first hour and Alice just stared at me wondering why I kept fidgeting. Lauren and Jessica practically attacked me as the bell rang in an attempt to walk me to trig. Alice just skipped off chuckling at my reaction.

"Ladies," I started, "I really appreciate your enthusiasm but I'm really not interested in this kind of attention right now. I'm just getting settled into a new school and home." Oh boy that didn't go over very well. Both Jessica and Lauren looked at me like I'd just told them that their favorite boutique was going out of business. Finally Lauren just looked me square in the eye and said, "Look Cullen. You've just made the biggest mistake you could make at this school. Jessica and I are the two hottest bitches here at Forks and we can either make or break your next two years here at Forks. You should be so lucky to have us both after you. Also you have no right to be so picky since you come from a family full of incesting siblings. What's your problem any ways? Is it because we're not related to you?" Wow I couldn't believe something so simple had brought all that on. "Yeah," Jessica retorted, "Just wait until we tell everyone how you've treated us. No one around here is going to accept you or your sick family. I'm sure Mike will enjoy having some fun with you too. From what I hear your sister shot him down several times too." With that they stalked off. Hmmmmm I thought. That could have gone better.

I made it to my trig class just as the bell rang. I sat in my seat and was sadly disappointed to find that my neighbor wasn't here yet. I wonder if she's running late. By the time the bell rang I'd realized that Bella must have been late and had to go to tardy hall. I went to my history class and got several dirty looks from Jessica which I simply ignored. The class was fairly boring. Most of it I had already covered in my old school and what we hadn't Jasper had taught me through all of his reading. He was way to into history sometimes, but it helped me get straight A's in history so who was I to complain. As class drew to a close I was looking forward to lunch so that I could talk to Alice and see if she had spoke to Bella today.

As I made my way to the lunch room, Lauren and Jessica stepped out into the hallway blocking me from going any further. As I came to a stop in front of them someone grabbed me from behind and threw me into the lockers. I could feel blood dripping down my chin. Great my nose was bleeding. Well I knew something like this was coming. You don't upset the two biggest bitches in school and not get an ass beating. As I turned around Mike Newton was towering over me. "I hear you were insulting my girls. You should have just enjoyed whatever ride they were willing to give ya because now you've got me on your ass and you're gunna hate the ride I'm gunna give ya. Nobody insults my girls and gets away with it. You may be the new dream boat around here but you're just the flavor of the week buddy and when the newness wears off you'll be nothing. So from now on stay away from these two and stay out of my way or else you'll get a worse beating then this. Understood?" All I could do is shake my head yes and with that he gave me a kick in the chest and left going into the cafeteria with Lauren and Jessica. Great the second biggest guy in school had taken a disliking to me and I had two classes with him. Well Emmet I'm sure was just waiting for something like this to happen.

I went into the bathroom to clean up my nose and noticed how swollen it was. Great! No way to hide that. Guess Emmet was going to have to find out. Although I was old enough now I didn't need big brother coming to my rescue any more. I'm sure that'd just earn me a few more ass poundings if I did. I made my way out of the bathroom and into the cafeteria. My siblings had already got their food and settled in at our table. As I grabbed a pizza from the lunch line and sat down Alice was already staring at my nose. "Edward what happened to your nose?"

I replied, "Just a run in with some of Fork's finest residents. Apparently Lauren and Jessica aren't used to rejection."

Emmet burst out laughing, "You mean that two girls did that to ya bro?"

"No Emmet. Their big body guard did." I replied, "It's no biggie though. I can handle it on my own."

"Awwww my little Eddie is all grown up and loosing his own battles now. Well listen man if it gets to be too much just let me know and I'll step in and kick some ass," Emmet said. With that bell rang and lunch was over. I didn't even get to ask Alice about Bella. I didn't see her in the cafeteria though either like I had the day before.

As I left my fourth period gym class I was excited that may be I had just missed her all day and that she would be in biology. No such luck. She must be out sick today I guess. Hopefully it wasn't anything too serious. I wish I knew where she lived I'd go visit her and help her with her missed class work. Finally it was sixth period and I was in Spanish with Emmet. We'd already become fluent in Spanish and it just seemed like a waste of our time to be taking Spanish here. Esme, our mother, had wanted us to be fluent when we were young and had taught us herself. It was the only language though that Forks offered so we were forced to stick through it.

Finally. Day two was done with. I couldn't be more excited to get home. I just wanted to escape that horribly stereotypical school. Alice was less excited as well. It seems she had missed having Bella around just as much as I had. Jasper of course was the same as always and Rose and Emmet were just making out in the back seat. Finally when they managed to disentangle themselves Emmet informed us that tomorrow he'd be trying out for the football team. So of course that meant he and Rose would be driving separately tomorrow in his jacked up Jeep. Rose was arguing over taking her BMW instead but Emmet was hell bent on taking his jeep which was probably for the best since this little town would probably die if they saw Rose's bright red BMW.

BPOV

I woke up so sore Tuesday morning after all the beatings I took on Monday. I decided after seeing the slight bruise on my cheek that it'd be best to stay home today instead of trying to cover it up with consealor. It would be easier to hide tomorrow. That said I looked out my window and saw Charlie had already gone to work. Great I could go down and eat some breakfast. As I finished eating I went about cleaning up the kitchen. By lunch time I was satisfied with how the kitchen sparkled and made my way into the living room. Yuck! It was filthy. I can't believe Charlie hadn't beat me for letting it get this bad before now. It was covered in beer cans and the ash trays were overflowing. There were old plates with dinners from last week on the floor, and newspapers were strewn everywhere. It smelled like something had died in there.

I got started on gathering all the beer cans up off the floor and throwing them in a trash bag along with dumping all the ash trays. After that I picked up all the dishes and put them along with the ash trays in the kitchen sink to soak and began picking up all the newspapers that were strewn about the room. After I dusted the TV and the furniture I began vacuuming the carpet. Wow I really can't believe how bad this room had gotten and the Charlie let it get this bad. Finally I had the room straightened up and I went back into the kitchen to wash the dishes that I'd left soaking. After I dried and replaced all the dishes to their proper places in the cabinet I replaced all the ash trays to their spots in the living room.

I slowly crept up the stairs and into Charles' room and grabbed all his dirty laundry and began washing it all along with mine. Around three o'clock I started working on dinner, spaghetti with meatballs and garlic bread. After the clothes were washed and dried and I had put the garlic bread in the oven I brought the laundry into the living room and began folding it all. Just before five I pulled the garlic bread out and put two pieces on a plate along with a helping of spaghetti and several meatballs for Charlie along with an ice cold beer. I ran up stairs to put the laundry away and was done just as Charlie pulled into the drive way. I may have missed a day of school but I got plenty done around the house and I figured it would put Charlie in a good mood at least. If I was lucky any ways.

As I climbed down the stairs to get some dinner Charlie seemed in a decent mood. This might be good. "Looks like you were busy today Isabella. How is it that yesterday you didn't manage to get my dinner ready but today you managed to clean house and have dinner ready? You been having people over here? Is that why you couldn't manage to have dinner ready yesterday? You been screwing around you little whore?" Charlie called from the kitchen. As I entered I just shook my head no and grabbed a plate of food. Just then the phone rang and Charlie answered it. He got a very disgusted look on his face then. He hung up and immediately I knew something was wrong and I was in for it. "So Isabella you decided to play hooky today huh? Thought your old man wouldn't find out about it? How do you think that's going to look for me? My own bratty kid, skipping school? You're supposed to be helping to set an example around this piss poor little town remember?"

I tried to respond that I hadn't gone because the bruise on my face was too dark to hide but before I could say anything he grabbed me by my hair and was throwing me into the wall. I started to curl up into a ball but then remembered that it only made him madder when I tried to protect myself and just laid there while he kicked me a few good times. After that he grabbed his dinner and stalked off into the den and switched the TV on. I slowly got up assessing the damage to my ribs, legs, and arms. It wasn't too bad. About the same as before, it just meant that they would be sore a few days longer now. I went to the table and started to take a bite out of the spaghetti when Charlie stomped back into the room. "Oh no you don't! If you don't go to school you don't eat." Then he grabbed my fixed plate and threw it against the wall. The spaghetti plopped onto the floor and the plate shattered into several large shards. "Clean up your mess and put dinner away." With that he stomped back into the den and I was left with a big red mess on the wall and floor to clean up.

After taking about an hour to scrub the wall free of spaghetti sauce and cleaning up all the broken pieces I put dinner away and went upstairs for a shower. I crawled into bed and set my alarm. There was no way I could miss school tomorrow. I grabbed my cordless phone and called Angela to tell her to pick me up at our normal time and hung up. As I drifted off to sleep I thought back to when mom was around. I missed her so much. I couldn't remember a time when we had all been a big happy family but when Charlie was gone mom and I would have girl time. She and I were always able to cheer each other up. We also were able to absorb some of Charlie's anger and save each other from such horrible beatings. As I drifted off to sleep I imagined how different life would have been if mom and I had left Charlie. Just packed up one day while he was at work, waited till he came home and got smashed, and then just piled into the car and ran. As far as I knew mom didn't have any family so it would just be me and her against the world but I doubted the world could be nearly as cruel as Charlie. That was the last thought I had as I drifted off to sleep.

The next thing I knew I woke up to a freezing ice cube induced shower and Charlie yelling at me to get my lazy ass out of bed. I stumbled out of bed and looked at my clock it was only 6 a.m. Angela wouldn't be here for another hour. Charlie threw me into the wall and said he was personally dropping me off at school to ensure that I made it this time. He left the room and I quickly got dressed. I threw on my black flare jeans, my mother's blue sweater and a pair of vans and rushed down the stairs. I grabbed my bag and was outside before Charlie could get mad at me for dawdling. It was freezing outside and my hair was soaking wet. My teeth were chattering and I'm sure my lips were blue but Charlie refused to turn the heat on. It was like he did everything he could to torture me in any way possible.

Charlie dropped me off at school at 6:30am and I went to the pay phones in the parking lot to call Angela and tell her not to pick me up. School didn't even start for another 45 minutes and they didn't unlock the doors until 7am because they didn't want students going in early and getting into trouble. Finally at 5 after I saw Angela pull up and I went to meet her at her car. Not even a full minute after she pulled up I saw the silver Volvo pull up with Edward, Alice, and Jasper. I couldn't help but stare as they pulled in three spots down from Angela. An unfamiliar jacked up jeep pulled in beside them and I could barely make out two people in it. It looked like a blond definitely in the passenger's seat and a guy was in the driver's seat.

"Girl you're freezing. What happened to you and why didn't you dry your hair this morning if you were going to be outside?" Angela asked.

"Charlie happened," I replied, "He wanted to ensure that I got up in time by dumping a bucked of ice cold water on me and then insisted upon dropping me off at school on his way to work."

"So you mean to tell me that he woke you up an hour before school even opens, dumped freezing water on you, and then left you to wait outside in the cold?" Angela questioned.

"Yup. That about sums up my morning for ya in a nut shell," I replied, "Come on lets head in before the newbie's come up. I'm freezing and need to thaw any ways."

Just as we were making our escape Alice came running up with Jasper in tow and Edward following. It seemed that Emmet and Rosalie wanted to stay in his jeep and have a sex ed lesson of their own.

"Hi Bella! How are you? We were worried when we didn't see you yesterday. What happened to you? Oh wow Bella you're lips are purple. Why didn't you dry your hair this morning? You know you're going….." Alice was blurting out a mile a minute. Suddenly she was cut off by Jasper covering her mouth with his hand and Edward chiming in, "Alice give the girl a break. Jeez. You just walk up to her and start blurting out a million questions." "Sorry," Alice said, "I get a little carried away. But seriously Bella, why didn't you at least dry your hair?"

"I didn't exactly have time to this morning," I replied turning about 5 shades of red.

"Yeah she just had to get here in plenty of time before school was even open," Angela blurted out. I elbowed her in the side and just then the warning bell rang. All three of them gave us a strange look as we rushed off to first period.

First period

"Angela! What the hell? You totally threw me under the short bus back there," I cried at her before class started.

"What? It was just a little teasing. Besides they're going to figure you out sooner or later Bella. I know I have. I just can't do anything to help you. May be one of them can," Angela replied. "Besides it's not like I said Charlie is an abusive prick and Bella's just too chicken shit to do anything about it. Now did I?"

"Angela how many times do I have to tell you? You don't know what you're talking about. I'm just really clumsy and bruise easily," I replied.

Angela dropped the conversation before it could go any further.

Just then the teacher walked in thankfully and class started. My teeth were still chattering away but I was starting to get feeling back in my fingers. My nose was starting to warm as well and I could feel it starting to turn red from the heat.

I swear sometimes Angela just got carried away with what she thought she knew. Most of which she was right about but I was never going to let her know that. I decided to put my hair up in a bun because there was no way it was going to dry anytime soon. It was too thick and way too wet. Having it up would at least keep it from hanging on me all day and possibly making me sick.

After first period was done second flew by. I went to my locker before going to trig and Alice met me there all full of bubbles and questions.

"So Bella. What was up with your friend's comment this morning? And why didn't you dry your hair?" Alice asked.

"Angela just likes to crack jokes even though not everyone finds them funny. And I just ran out of time to dry my hair is all. No biggie," I replied.

"Oh," was all Alice said in reply, "Ok well if you say so. Have fun in trig and watch out for my brother. He's ready to pounce on ya too with his own questions." With that Alice went dancing down the halls to her next class.

Great I thought. Now I have another round of questions to look forward to with someone I don't know and who doesn't know anything about me and I don't want him to know anything about me. It was dangerous for me to have friends. It was bad enough I had Angela. Charlie didn't mind because he knew she was a quiet one and wouldn't say anything unless I asked her to. Which he knew that would never happen. The more people who suspected something though the more dangerous it became and it was obvious this morning when Edward, Alice, and Jasper walked up to us that they suspected something. I guess that I could just skip trig and avoid any questioning looks from Edward but really what good was it going to do. Eventually we would have to see each other. We shared two classes together and there was no avoiding him. Unless may be he was finally ready to move up in the social standing of the school. I had missed all of yesterday so who knows. May be Lauren and Jessica had scooped him up and carried him off to the realm of popularity.

I walked into the classroom and went straight to my seat ignoring Mike and Jessica's glares. I sat down and pretended like I didn't see either one of them and proceeded to pull out my book and notebook. I could over hear Jessica talking to Mike. Well everyone could because she spoke loudly enough so everyone could hear it. I didn't catch a name but I could tell they were talking about who Mike's newest victim of abuse was. Well I guess that's good news for me. He'll leave me alone for awhile until he gets sick of beating up some poor guy.

Just then Edward walked into the class and sat down beside me. He seemed quiet today which was a nice change because I was still immensely sore and really wasn't in a very social mood. Besides I figured Jessica would be over soon to keep him entertained. Surprisingly though she didn't. He just started getting ready for class and as he sat there waiting I just stared at him. Finally I broke the silence.

"So. How do you like school so far? I see you managed to survive two and half days here now," I asked. As he turned to look at me I noticed it looked like his nose was a little swollen as was his lower lip. Hmmmm I wonder how that happened.

"It's fine. Not much different then any other school. A little more small town 'I know where you live so you better watch what you do,' but overall nothing special," he replied, "Also it's more rainy then what I'm used to. I miss the snow but I'm sure you guys get snow too."

"Yeah that's the only bad thing about small towns. Very few secrets around them and even less privacy, and yeah we get snow. Normally not until November end of October though," I replied. "You know your nose looks kind of big and your lip looks swollen. Are you ok?"

"Thanks," he replied. I turned red realizing how that must have sounded.

"Oh no. No. I didn't mean it like that. I mean it looks sore like you ran into something and it was swollen. Not that you have a big nose. I'm sorry. That came out wrong," I back tracked.

He just started laughing. "No it's alright. I knew what you meant. I just wanted to give you a hard time is all. I got in a fight yesterday and got knocked in the nose and the mouth. No biggie. The swelling is really the only thing that resulted from it. So what was up with you this morning? Your hair was soaking wet and your lips were purple."

"Oh that was nothing. I just woke up late and didn't have time to blow dry my hair. Charlie had said he'd bring me to school and so I had to rush to be ready in time," I replied.

"Well why didn't you just ride with Angela? That would have given you time to dry your hair at least. You looked like you were freezing out there," he said.

"I didn't have time to call her and ask. Charlie was in a rush and I just ran out the door not even thinking about if it was cold out or not," I replied. There that sounded like a good enough excuse. It happens to plenty of women in the morning.

"Oh," was all he managed to say.

Just then the teacher started class and I began to take really careful and informative notes on the lesson he was giving. I looked over a few times and Edward was just staring at me which made me blush more and turn away as fast as possible. As class was drawing to a close I began dreading going to lunch. I was sure Mike had some more "issues" he wanted to work through and I really just wanted to be left alone and go to the cafeteria with Angela and eat. It'd been almost a full 24 hours since I'd last eaten.

The bell rang and I was out the door as fast as I could. I ran to my locker and threw my books in, and raced towards the cafeteria to get in line for lunch. Surprisingly Mike walked by and didn't even try to stop me. I couldn't remember the last time he left me completely alone. He always had to do something to remind me that he could do what ever he wanted to me whenever he felt like it. As I got into line with Angela, Alice and Jasper came up behind us and started talking about one of the classes they had together. As I got to the front of the line I pulled out my green lunch card as fast as possible and tried to slide it back in as soon as I could before Alice could see. Of course I should have known she would have seen it though. No matter how fast I tried to be about it. As Angela and I sat down with Ben, Alice and Jasper followed and sat down. Hmmmm no luck with them climbing the social ladder just yet. But given their looks and dress I'm sure it was coming. Just a few more days Bella and then they'll be on their way up and out of our social circle and I won't have to worry about them getting too close. A few minutes later Rosalie and Emmet came and sat down in front of us.

Alice made the introductions and although Rosalie came off a bit icy she seemed like she had a good heart once she warmed up to you. Emmet however was a big clown. He was taking his orange peel and putting it in his mouth and making jokes about his "grill" before I had even taken a bite of my pizza.

"Bella. What was that green card you showed the lunch lady," Alice asked. Great I knew she would ask that if she saw it. So here it comes. The big social standing division was about to be made. Before I could say anything though, Lauren walked by and answered for me.

"It's for kids whose dad's are raging alcoholics and don't care to spend money on food for their unwanted kids," she snidely replied. With that she sauntered off and sat with Jessica. Mike was missing which I found to be weird and again I felt a twinge of guilt for the poor person he was choosing to torment instead of me today. Alice and Rosalie just gave me a sad look like they didn't know what to say so they would just like sympathetic in hopes it would be enough.

Just then Angela spoke up for me, "Lauren is such a bitch! I swear. It's not that at all. The town gave Chief Swan that as another perk for being the sheriff because they knew they couldn't afford a great salary but that it would help with what they couldn't pay him by making sure his kid got to eat lunch everyday free."

"Oh that was nice of the town to do," Alice piped up.

"Yeah. I wish they would have done that for us with dad being such a world famous doctor and all," Emmet replied.

"Oh please," Rosalie replied, "They'd have taken it back after one day of trying to feed you big bear."

At that we all cracked up laughing. Just then Edward walked in looking a little rough and worse for wear. He sat down next to Emmet and just sighed.

"What happened to you Eddie," Emmet asked.

"Nothing. Just got hung up before getting here, and don't call me Eddie. You know I hate that," Edward replied.

I just stared at him dissecting what he said and reading his facial expressions. It looked like he may be Mike's new toy. I really hoped not. It'd make me feel even worse to know that instead of messing with me Mike was picking on him. I mean really. What could he have done to deserve the wrath of Mike? Although in all truth what had I really done too? I'd have to remember to thank Angela for making up that quick story too about the card. She knew I was embarrassed to have to have it much less have someone question me about it. Especially when it was Forks' newest additions who seemed to have plenty of money to go around.

Lunch was about half way done and I noticed Edward didn't make any moves towards the lunch line. So I decided to do something I normally wouldn't do because it was a gesture of friendship and like I said before. Charlie doesn't like me to have friends because that meant someone to confide in and possibly let slip what goes on in the Swan home. I slowly cut my pizza in half and slid it on a napkin towards him. He looked up at me with those beautiful sad green eyes. "What's this for," he asked.

"What does it look like," I snapped. Not meaning to sound harsh but knowing I did. I back tracked. "I just figured you needed something in your stomach. Can't have my lab partner fainting on me during class because he didn't get a chance to eat lunch," I smiled and winked at him. It was so cute too because all he did was smile and blush back. That smile though was all I needed to feel better about what I'd done. Alice I noticed kept going back and forth between the two of us with this goofy look on her face. I couldn't tell what she was thinking but I was sure it wasn't good. Angela openly gaped at me and Ben just took his finger and pushed her chin up to help close her mouth. Emmet was about to dive on the pizza when Rosalie smacked him and told him to leave it because it was for his smaller brother.

A few minutes later with barely enough time for us to eat our pizza the bell rang and we had to go to our fourth period classes. As Angela and I left I turned to her, "Hey Ang. Thanks for what you said back there about the card. I hate having to use that thing but it's even worse when someone asks about it, and Lauren certainly didn't help matters."

"No prob Bells. That's what friends are for not just throwing you under the short bus anyways. Although I must say that was pretty selfless for you to share that little pathetic excuse for a pizza with Edward. I think someone has a cruuuuuusssssshhhhh," she called as she disappeared down the hall. No she couldn't be right about that. It wasn't a crush. I wasn't allowed to have those. They were dangerous for anyone most of all me. Besides it's called a crush for a reason because that what happens to your heart when you find out they don't feel the same, and there was no way he did. He was the "hot new guy" that every girl around here wanted. I was just the washed out, beat up, quiet girl that no one spoke to unless it was in a derogatory way.

As fourth period ended I headed towards biology and wondered what Edward had to say about what happened before he came into the cafeteria. If it was Mike messing with him may be I could say something to Mike to get him to lay off of him. What ever Mike's reasoning was I'm sure it didn't merit him beating Edward up. Just then Edward walked into the class room and sat down beside me. "So what happened during lunch today," I asked him.

"What do you mean," he responded, "You were there. You gave me half your pizza and Emmet tried to inhale it before I could even process what you'd done." He grinned.

"No. I mean why you were late to lunch," I asked.

"I just got held up at my locker is all," He replied. I didn't believe him but if he didn't want to talk about it who was I to force him to. By now my hair was mostly dry and I let it down. It curled around in loose ringlets since I'd had it up most of the day. I rested my head on the table feeling a bit ill and hot. The desk felt nice and cool against my warm forehead. Just then Lauren, Jessica, and Mike walked in and sat at their table. Lauren and Jessica kept turning around and smirking at me or so I thought before Edward piped up, "I swear those two are insufferable. I turned them both down as nice as I could yesterday and now all they do is talk about me and send their unrequited loves after me."

"Ah so that's what happened while I was gone yesterday," I said, "No wonder they haven't been following you around all day and you got ruffed up a bit." I started laughing, "Don't you know not to piss the queen bee off?"

"Apparently not. Either that or it's worth having a few stings to keep her away," he chuckled. Again he had me laughing, and not the fake kind that I was used to.

"Ok class, settle down now. Today we're going to talk about the science fair coming up. As you know you'll be pairing up with someone in class and working on it for the next 3 months and then not only will you be presenting it in class and getting a grade but you will also enter it into the science fair. Any team that advances to the next level in it will get an extra credit of 10points on their grade. So I suggest you start talking amongst yourselves after class and figure out who you want to pair off with and get working on it," our teacher Mr. Johnson said. With that out of the way he started in on the day's lesson.

A few minutes later a note slide towards me.

Partner?

He looked over at me expectantly. I smiled and shook my head yes. He grinned back and that was it for the rest of class. Once class let out he came up to me and asked me about what we should do and when we should start getting together. I told him the only stipulation I had was that we not meet at my house because Charlie was rarely home during the day due to work and he didn't like me having boys over unsupervised. It seemed like a reasonable excuse to me. He said that was fine and that his mother was a stay at home mom and it'd be fine to meet at their house. This was all stuff I'd have to run by Charlie first but if it was for school I didn't see how he could refuse. I went to gym and finished out my day before heading home.