Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Twilight, but Stephenie Meyer doesn't own the rights to the names "Edward" and "Bella"

Chapter 2

Frustration

"Partners will be, these two rows, these two rows," our teacher put her hands down on my desk and the desk of the boy that I had stared at, "and these two rows. Every day I will give you an assignment like this," She began passing out a half sheet of paper to all the partners. "Everyday you and your partner will answer four questions on the previous nights reading. These questions will come up again in the lectures. These quizzes are worth twenty percent of your grade so I suggest that you work together. Normally I would only give you ten minuets, but today I'll give you an extra five to get to know each other." She looked at us all expectantly. "Get to it!"

The room immediately was filled with a buzz of low talking and the squeaking of chairs as several partners leaned across the aisle. I turned to the guy next to me; he was flipping to the first chapter of the book.

"I'm Bella," I smiled. I tired not to focus on my previous embarrassment and just be nice. If I forgot about it then it wouldn't matter. He obviously didn't care.

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Edward."

So much for introductions. I tried desperately to think of something else to say. I gave up quickly. I was about to ask him if I could take a look at the questions when he turned to me with a hard look.

"Did you read the chapter?" His voice sounded doubtful.

"Yes," I said almost a little angry. "Do I look like I didn't?" I shouldn't have snapped at him, but he was kind of rude.

"Sorry," he muttered, turning back to the book. "I'm used to always being stuck with people who do nothing."

I knew the feeling so I could understand where he was coming from which made it harder for me to be irritated by him. "Well, I'd be happy to do my part if you let me look at the questions." I held out my hand for the sheet of paper.

He blankly handed it to me and went back to turning pages. I glanced over the questions, fairly easy if you had done the reading.

"Do you want to split them up or work together?" he asked.

Even though he was annoying me I replied, "I think the idea was for us to work together."

"Fine," he said just as emotionlessly. "Do you want to write, or shall I?"

I shrugged. "You probably should. I have the handwriting of a six year old boy."

That earned me a half smirk. I would have been pleased that he found my comment amusing except for the fact that it was at my expense.

After I had answered the whole first question without even glancing at my book Edward seemed a little nicer. His personality didn't really invite people in. He was not the kind of person that you could just talk to. From the fifteen minuets of interaction that we had I could tell that Edward liked things very ordered and didn't want to bother with people who he thought was going to waste his time. Part of me doubted that Edward had many friends.

The thought that he was a lonely person made me sad. Despite his earlier rudeness I felt a very strong pull towards him. It was obvious that I found him attractive judging by my display the previous class period. He was very smart as well. I became determined to know more about this person. Edward had quickly become an enigma, a puzzle that I had to solve. I could not give up easily.

As the class ended I gave him a smile and a cheerful, "See you next time."

He only looked at me and nodded blankly. This was not going to be easy.

********

My car door slammed behind me. I rushed through the maze of cars that filled the student parking lot. I had not heard my alarm that morning and had been woken up by Alice ten minuets later than I normally would have gotten out of bed. Although I had plenty of time to get to class, the change in my schedule made me nervous.

I tried to rush across the crosswalk, fearing that students later than I was would decide it would be faster to run me over with their cars than to just wait. I shouldn't have rushed; moving quickly is a bad idea for clumsy people. I tripped on the curb and felt gravity pull me down to the Earth's surface.

I cringed, waiting for impact, but was surprised to find myself above the ground. It took me a moment to realize that a pair of arms was wrapped around my waist, preventing me from crashing into the concrete.

The arms pulled me back up to my feet. Once released, embarrassed, I turned to thank my savior. Edward was staring at me with that famous blank look on his face.

Fire flashed across my cheeks. In the last two weeks I had begun to find myself more and more attracted to my history partner. The last thing I would have wanted him to see was me tripping over my own feet.

"Thanks Edward," I mumbled into my chest.

He shrugged. "You were falling," was his only explanation.

I tugged on my clothes, trying to arrange myself in a much more attractive way. "It wouldn't be the first time," I shrugged back. A nervous giggle escaped me.

Edward looked at me. His face never seemed to show emotion. No matter what was going on around him Edward's face remained as blank as the stone carving that he looked so similar to. "You fall down often?" His words came out sounding like a doctor's line of questioning.

"Yes," I blushed some more.

He looked me over for a moment. "It might be an inner ear problem."

I really had no idea how to respond to that statement. Was he trying to be helpful or was he teasing me? Either way he wasn't doing a very good job.

"Thanks?"

He shrugged. "Either that or you need to pay more attention to where you are walking."

He started to walk to his class. I made a split second decision to try to keep up with him. Edward's legs were much longer than mine and I feared tripping again as we walked through campus. The route he took was the long way to my class, but I didn't notice. My head was to busy trying to come up with something to say. As far as I knew all Edward and I had to talk about was history class. Save history class for history class. Edward began to veer off toward the music building just as it was becoming imperative for me to head in the other direction.

"I'll see you in class," I smiled at him. Keep it simple and friendly.

He looked startled for a moment, as though he had just realized that I had been walking next to him all that time. He gave me a tight-lipped smile and held up his hand. The gesture could have been a wave if it hadn't been so stiff and forced looking.

I sighed with frustration as soon as he was out of sight. I needed to find something in common with this person if I had any chance of having a real conversation with him.

********

"Thank you again for catching me," I said as I slid into my desk.

Edward was drawing on the brown paper that he had used to cover his history book. He was the only person that I had known since high school that still covered their textbooks.

"I would have done the same for anyone," he said, more focused on his doodling then on me.

I heaved a sigh. No matter what I tired to do, Edward was always the same. Edward looked up at me, startled by the loud noise I made. I smiled weakly at him and lay my head down on my desk.

It was time to consider giving up. This puzzle didn't want to be solved, like a rubix cube that wouldn't turn and all the pieces were stuck together. I sighed again, more quietly this time. There was no way I was going to crack Edward.

Accepting defeat I pulled my binder out of my backpack. Edward did the same. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted something familiar. Shoved into the plastic covering of his binder was a yellow flyer that was identical to the one I had on my corkboard at home.

For a moment I considered asking him about it. After all, a topic of conversation was a topic of conversation. But instead I decided not to mention it and simply let a few of the pieces fall into place on their own.

So this was originally two chapters, but I decided that it was too short.

Edward is a pain in this story. He doesn't like people very much. He kind of made me angry at first. Hmm...I guess I can't complain. That is how I wrote him after all.

Thanks for reading! :)