Disclaimer: Yeah, if I owned twilight, I wouldn't have a midterm monday.

Every single step he took on the rickety wooden steps up to the mount, he argued with himself.

She needs her bag Edward;, bring her the freaking bag.

She's gunna think you're a creeper Edward; take it back to class and leave it there.

This could be your only chance to talk to her. Take it!

After 135 such thoughts, Edward had finally gotten to the top of the hill and seen two buildings. With a worried look on his face, Edward looked from building to building.

"Need some help?"

Edward turned to the source of the question, a small girl, or rather, a tiny woman easily mistaken as a girl, who stood there in Jimmy Choos at the top of the stairwell, looking at him like he was an idiot.

"Um, yeah. A friend of a friend's left her bag in class. I'm trying to bring it back to her but I don't know which one is which." Edward said, before naming the building he had to find.

"Oh!" The small woman looked at the bag he held, and a look of recognition crossed her face that Edward didn't see as he looked from building to building.

"I'm going in that direction, follow me." Without another word she spun around, leading him to the far building. She greeted various people as they passed, leading him to the elevator. When they got out on the appropriate floor, she turned and winked at Edward before pointing to the door towards the end of the hall.

With a muttered thanks, Edward went to the door and stood in front of it, the names "Isabella Swan" and "Victoria Stevens" were on small signs on the door. He took in a deep breath forcing him to calm down as he raised his hand to knock.

The sound seemed to echo down the deserted hallway, it was still too early for people to mill as they tended to do in the afternoon. Less people around, less embarrassed I can make myself.

He had one last fleeting idea to drop the bag and run, but that would be even creepier.

"Alice! You won't believe what just-" Edward was pretty sure that he had never blushed this hard before, in front of him was leggy brunette in a cami and boy-shorts.

"I brought you your bag." Edward held out the brown bag at arms length, "I thought getting it back to you before someone stole it would probably be more important then hearing how tectonic plates work again."

"Thanks," she said quietly, her blush probably rivaled his own as she reached out and took the bag. "If you want you can come in?"

Edward contemplated this, nodding and stepped past her. The room was a split double, one side had very small clothes strewn all over the place and a lump of breathing comforter on the bed, he assumed that the lump was the "Victoria" broadcasted on the door. The other side of the room had a homier feel to it, with warm tones. It wasn't exactly clean, but the mess seemed less chaotic (or slutty for that matter) then the mess on the other side of the divide. On the side that housed the closets Bella was reaching into, she pulled out a fluffy white robe that she pulled on as she gestured to the chair. He sat in the nondescript university provided chair as she sat on her own bed.

"Your roommate's here," Edward said quietly, pointing out the obvious.

"She sleeps heavier than Jacob, especially when she's hungover," Bella shrugged, "do you want something to eat?"

Edward shook his head, "I had something with my coffee."

The pair of them sat quietly for a moment. Edward looked at the shelf of cds over her desk, "Is that Debussy?"

"What?" Bella's eyes followed his to the shelf. "Yes, my mother used to play it around the house, Clair de lune is my favorite."

"You have very good taste then."

"You like it?"

"I had to play one of his pieces for a recital when I was younger, I've loved it since then."

"Are you a music major?"

"No," Edward let out a little sigh, "pre-law, following in my father's footsteps. You?"

"English and education, I'm going to teach and write a novel on the side." She smiled at him, "Jacob said you were a lot more reserved when you first got roomed together. He spent half his time hoping you'd get laid so you'd loosen up, but you don't seem all that reserved to me."

Edward turned to look at her. As if she realized what she said, her face instantly reddened.

"He hoped I would get laid?"

"I'm so sorry I shouldn't have said that! He was just joking; you guys get along better now don't you?"

Edward smiled as he nodded, I wouldn't mind too much getting laid at the moment…

Down Edward, keep it light.

"Do you and uh…" he gestured to the divide, "get along?"

She shook her head vehemently, with perfect timing, rustling noises arose from the other side, followed by the sound of two feet hitting the carpeted ground. A slew of other noises joined as the roommate appeared to walk across her side of the room. Edward could only see the long blonde knotted hair, as the girl walked out of the room barefoot to the bathroom across the hall.

As soon as the door shut Bella leaned forward, "She is so … I crash at Alice's or Rosalie's a lot. I would crash at Jake's but I wasn't sure if you'd appreciate that."

It didn't escape Edward's notices that rather then say bad things about her roommate; she just said how she remedied the situation.

"You can crash in our dorm; normally I'd say something along the lines of 'as long as you don't snore', but… I've gotten used to it." Edward surprised himself by winking at the brunette, who giggled.

Holy crap! I just made her giggle!

A glance at the clock by Bella's bed told Edward one bit of information that he did not want to know. "I've got to go, it's going to take me a while to get to my next class from here."

Edward looked at Bella, who actually seemed sad that he was leaving. On a whim he turned in the doorway to ask a question he'd probably severely regret later.

"You're gunna hang out with Jake and me tomorrow right?"

"Guitar hero, pissing contests and pizza? Wouldn't miss it for the world." She gave him a grin that caused his heart to go at a pace he was sure most doctors would disapprove of.

"See you in bio!" He turned and collided with the sleepy looking Victoria, her eyes burned a path on his body that he wasn't very comfortable with. He managed to get past her with a polite nod, all but skipping to the end of the hallway.

There at the entrance to the lobby, watching him, stood Rosalie and the small woman that had led him to the right floor; he waved to the pair of them and almost made it past them to the elevator when he felt a hand on his upper shoulder.

"Not a lot of boys at this school would bring a bag up to the mount just to get it back to a clumsy girl," said the tiny one.

"We just wanted to let you know that we appreciate that," Rosalie said, lowering her hand from his shoulder.

"And that you'd better watch your step, or you'll get designer footprints all over your ass. Got it?" the tiny one finished.

Edward just nodded "Alice right?"

The small woman nodded, and gestured to the elevator; he went over and got on to the first available one.

"Oh, and Edward? Tell the boys that I say hi." He heard in Rosalie's voice before the doors slid shut.

XXXXXXXX

"Tell the boys I say hi," Emmett let out a deep breath as he sat back, "that's it? The boys? Not that super sexy Emmett?"

"No, all she said was 'tell the boys I say hi', and if you keep asking me, I swear I will punch you." They were seated on a bench under a group of trees close to Edward's next class; Emmett was fully prepared to head back to the dorm, but for some reason they were recounting the events.

"So who is Alice?"

All Edward could respond with was a shrug, when something at the corner of his eye caught his attention.H shifted his gaze to see that Bella was walking towards the building he was sitting front of from the library.

"For a month and a half the only time I see her is in class and all of a sudden she's everywhere," Edward muttered under his breath to Emmett.

"Most people would consider that a good thing," Emmett grinned as he waved to the approaching girl.

Her eyes lit up as she saw the pair, she yanked one of the ear buds out of her ear as she got closer. She offered the ear bud to Edward, who somehow managed to take it from her without touching, and raised it up to his ear. The sounds of Debussy floated around his head as he smiled.

"Nice choice."

"Talking to you about it this morning made me want to listen to Clair de lune again," she said, almost sheepishly.

"Oh no, not another music snob!" Emmett stood up swing his bag onto his back, "I can't take the pressure to listen to a bunch of pianos and strings, I'm going to go listen to some real music now. Nice seein ya again Bella," he quickly walked away towards his dorm.

Edward offered Bella a nervous smile, before gesturing to the building. "Shall we?" she turned and began to walk towards the building.

"So what were you guys talking about that had Emmett looking so distressed?" Bella watched her feet as they began to go up the stairs to the building.

"Football," He said non-committally or at least it started out about football.

"So… do you only listen to classical music?" Bella tentatively asked. Smiling as Edward shook his head.

"He only calls me a music snob because I don't like country," he said as he moved towards the back of the class, he looked back at Bella who stood in the aisle, looking at her usual seat. She looked up at Edward as he sat down and bit her lip, before moving to the open chair next to him.

Edward couldn't fight back the grin on his face as the teacher walked in, dropping his books on the podium. He tried to think of something to say to Bella that didn't sound as if he was coming on to her, or completely stupid.

"Do you like biology?" Edward finally ventured, inwardly slapping himself on the forehead. Before Bella could respond their teacher began to talk, unlike geology, they actually had to pay attention in this class so the rest of the time was spent in silence. At the end of the class they stood up and walked towards the door together.

"I've got to go, I've got my Shakespeare class now; we'll hang out on the hike tomorrow, right?"

"Right," Edward managed to say as he pulled away from being pushed into the door frame in the crowd of students.

"Thanks, can't wait!" With a blush on her face, she quickly walked towards the quad.

Walking towards his dorm, Edward went over the situation in his head, evaluating every thing she said and everything she did. As he walked, he couldn't help but let a big smile take over his face, she can't wait!

XXXXXXXXXX

The first thing he felt was a sudden impact in the stomach. Edward's eyes shot open as he sat up, looking around until he saw the shoe that wasn't his on the window sill by his bed.

"Turn off your friggen alarm! It's a Saturday morning!" Edward could barely make out Jacob's grumbling from under his pillow.

"Sure you sleep like a rock when its your alarm blasting for practice every morning, but when its my alarm, all of a sudden you're a light sleeper." Edward shot back as he leaned forward and slapped off his alarm, the little red numbers telling him it was 7:32 and he had slept through his alarm for over 15 minutes.

With a muttered oath, he slid out from between his warm blankets and slipped on his flip-flops, quickly brushing his teeth before getting dressed. He pulled on a long sleeved shirt over a short sleeve SU shirt, just in case it warmed up, pulling on his sneakers before grabbing his cell and camera, slipping them into the baggy pockets of his jeans. Edward grabbed the bag he filled the night before, with a lunch big enough to snack on as he walked, a water bottle, pen and paper and he was out the door.

As he stood in line for coffee he had a brilliant idea, well as brilliant as ideas can get at almost 8 in the morning.

Edward stood at the designated waiting place, looking around at the heads of various students until he saw the one that mattered. He walked over to the girl that looked like she was about to fall asleep leaning against the rail of the steps.

"I got you something," he said, holding out the extra cup of coffee to her. Had she already gotten a cup he would have passed off the extra one to another frazzled student.

"You are a life saver right now," she said, gratefully accepting the cup from him.

"It was no problem, from the stories I've heard you didn't sound like much of a morning person," he sipped his coffee, and let her sip hers. Once she seemed more awake he began to talk again, "so, Rosalie went through with not coming?"

"She actually had to go home; her little sister broke her leg. She left on a greyhound close to one in the morning."

"That's horrible! Is she okay?"

Bella shrugged. "From what I hear about her sister, she gets up to all sorts of stuff, like climbing trees around 10 at night."

"My cousin's girlfriend did that in her freshman year, its how they met. He was working at the on campus pharmacy and she came up and asked for pain killers and a date."

"Smooth, they're still together?"

"They live together, with a bunch of their friends in a house off campus; I used to crash there when Jacob and I weren't getting along."

"I bet your cousin didn't appreciate that."

"Are you kidding me? He adores me, he used to spend all of our family reunions taking care of me, but to be fair, there are only a few of our generation in the family."

"Small family?"

"Very, how about yours?"

"Smaller, only child of two only children." The pair continued to swap stories, and ask each other questions as the got herded onto the bus. While the other students slept on the way to the park, they joked and Bella told Edward some stories about Jacob's younger years that Jacob would not have appreciated him knowing.

Before they knew it they were split up into small groups, Edward and Bella followed their T.A. taking notes and sharing Edward's camera as they walked along the stream.

It had been an hour into the field trip; the long haired TA had less and less to tell his group about geological formations and more stories about crazy events that had happened to him while he was cave diving with some friends in South America. Needless to say, the cave diving stories were more interesting then the rest of the talk. Edward and Bella began to follow more closely, and listened to the TA's stories.

They were crossing the last part of the stream before they got into the woods, when the inevitable happened.

"So there we were, the three of us, and we only had 1/3rd of our tanks left, and protocol is that when you have 1/3rd left you have to turn back, but we were like 'dude, if we make it to that little section there we could see so much' but this one guy Steve , was freaking out and-" the TA was suddenly cut off by a loud splash and a shout of pain.

"Bella!" Edward quickly tried to help Bella stand up again, other well wishers swarmed around the girl sitting in the creek, looking dazed and embarrassed.

"Are you okay?" Edward asked, as he managed to help her get upright again.

"I think I hurt my ankle," she admitted, putting all her weight on one leg while the other one was held up on her toe.

"Can you walk on it?" The TA asked, picking up her bag that miraculously only got one corner wet.

She gingerly put weight on her bad ankle. "I don't think I can walk on it."

The TA stood for a moment, trying to think of the best way to handle the situation, Edward knew that the walk was about an hour and a half, and they had already walked an hour…

"I'll carry her the rest of the way."

Did I just say that?

"Okay, if she gets too heavy for you, just ask someone else to carry her."

"Wait, what? No! Don't I get a say in this?"

"Nope, clumsy girl is getting a piggyback ride," Edward hid his grin as he turned, lowering himself so that she could easily hop on his back. After a moment of grumbling Bella took his book bag and slung it on her back, her own still in the hands of the TA.

"You brought this on yourself Edward," she said as she gingerly climbed on Edward's back.

Edward couldn't stop the smirk of self satisfaction; he was sorry that she was hurt, (how could one girl be so clumsy?) but at the same time, she was pressed up close to his back. It seemed so surreal that just last Wednesday he didn't even know her name, and now he was carrying her through a forest. They could hear the rushing of the water fall (the whole reason why the trail went into the woods) as he did his best to go up the slightly steep incline of the hill without bothering her. They didn't feel the need to say anything, but it wasn't an awkward silence, at least it wasn't to Edward.

As he navigated around one particularly large tree trunk, he saw a pair of girls he sincerely hoped had fallen off the waterfall. Jessica and Lauren shot particularly nasty glares in his direction, and he suddenly felt Bella hold on to him tighter, resting her head on his shoulder as he walked past the girls.

"Beautiful morning to for a walk through the woods, isn't Bella?" Edward said pointedly when they passed. Bella made no response, just giggling at the look on the girls' faces.

XXXXXX

"Did you end up carrying her up to the mount too?" Jasper said as he tapped his highlighter against the paper in front of him.

"No, after the bus ride she felt better, I walked her to the stairs, but she told me not to worry about her. She hugged me and then hobbled off." Edward said, wondering why it seemed that lately he gossiped constantly to Jasper and Emmett about Bella. He felt like he should be sitting in some trendy New York City café, with Manolo Blaniks on, Gucci purse tucked under his arm, and discussing his latest conquest as the others made racy or corny quips about it.

Why the fuck do I know what Manolo Blaniks are?

"Either way, Emmett is gunna be pissed that Rosalie is missing in action," Jasper said, uncapping the highlighter and drawing it over several phrases in the thick history book.

Edward nodded as he continued to pretend to write in his notebook, casting glances out of the lobby window and listening to the people come and go from elevator. From where he sat he could see the top few floors of Bella's dorm; he fantasized momentarily that she was on her floor, looking out the lobby towards his dorm.

This dream would work better if she actually had some sort of feelings towards me.

He had spent a lot of time in the last two days in her company, but all that had done was assure him that she thought of him only as a friend, and nothing more.

He let out a deep sigh before he suddenly heard someone's voice in his ear.

"Whatcha looking at?"

Edward jumped in his seat, turning to look at the giggling brunette next to him.

"What a way to scare a guy Alice!"

Edward looked past her to see Bella smiling as she leaned against the door, he gave her a grin that he was beginning to reserve for her before turning back to Alice. "You guys are here early."

Alice wasn't looking at him though, she was looking at his blond companion, and it looked like she didn't even realize that Edward and Bella were still in the room. Jasper seemed to return this sentiment wholeheartedly.

"Aren'tcha gunna introduce me to your friend Edward?" Alice said with a coy grin on her face as she seemed to remember where they were.

"Er… Alice this is Jasper. Jasper, Alice," Edward said as Jasper stood up. Using his highlighter as a bookmark, he stretched his hand towards the small woman.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Alice said as she shook his hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," Jasper responded.

Edward quirked his eyebrow at Bella as the pair acted as though they just walked out of a old western.

"Shall we head on to the rooms?" Jasper said, gesturing to the hallway.

"Of course!" Without another word, Alice wrapped her arm around Jasper's and they began to walk down the hallway, Jasper's book forgotten on the lobby table. With a sigh, Edward collected his and Jasper's things.

"Are you alright?" he asked Bella, as he walked along side of her limping down the hallway.

"I'll be fine," she quickly responded. "Now I believe that I was promised guitar hero and pissing contests."

"That you were."

AN: WOOO second chapter. . sorry for the wait. The chapter was actually done tuesday, but between the last of my midterms and my betas being really busy, I just couldn't get it up. -insert thats what she said joke-

I have a midterm monday so its doubtful I'll get anything up soon PERO lots of reviews get me all hyped up and I write more chapters . sooo just click on that there little button and let me know what you think.

3s to those that reviewed/favorited. And to Brit, who betaed this at 3 in the morning because she wins at life.