Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, nor do I own Star Wars. (Just in case you were wondering)

Italics is Bella's thoughts.

Chapter 3

A New Hope

I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me when Alice came out of her room. She looked dressed and ready for a party.

Alice was always the pinnacle of fashion and liked to show it. She was not vain about her looks; she just liked to be dressed well. I took in the clothes that would have been better suited to a nightclub and compared them to my own.

I was just wearing the same old jeans, a t-shirt with The Beatles logo on it, my old ratty converse and my long hair tied back in its usual ponytail. In short, I was dressed the exact same as I dressed everyday of the week.

"Don't you think that you are a little over dressed?" I asked, trying to be kind.

Alice pouted. "But you never know who I might meet tonight! If I do happen to meet him then I want to look nice."

"Alice," I laughed at my tiny little friends sulking face. "You are so pretty. And when you meet the guy that you are going to be with then he will think you are beautiful whether you are dressed like that, dressed like me, or in you pink flannel pajamas and bunny slippers. The right guy wont care."

Alice smiled up at me. "Just the same I'm staying dressed like this."

"Fine," I muttered as I slung my button and patch covered messenger bag over my shoulder. "But be prepared to stick out like a sore thumb."

We arrived at the theater half an hour early. Alice would have been happy waltzing in at the last possible second, but I wanted good seats.

The town we lived in had two movie theaters. One was a large Cineplex with roughly twelve screens and had everything commercial. The theater we were at was much older. It had one very large screen and an only ever played movies that were going to sell out in the other theater, or older films.

I smiled at the marquee that read "Friday Night: Star Wars Marathon," in large block letters. Alice rolled her eyes at me. She liked Star Wars fine, but she could never manage to get as excited about it as I did.

As I suspected, Alice stuck out quite a bit. Truthfully, so did I. There was not a ton of girls there. The audience was mostly made up of guys around our age. The few females that were there were all dressed like me. The guys were to, just jeans and t-shirts with band logos or super hero emblems on them. I chuckled at the number of guys who had brought their plastic light sabers that made crashing noises when you banged them against things.

The theater was by no means full. This event was not going to be a huge draw. Alice and I stood in the back of the theater looking around. Alice was very concentrated on finding the right seat, so was I.

In movie theaters I liked to sit exactly in the middle, the perfect distance from the screen and not too close to the speakers. But tonight I was looking from something a little different.

"Let's sit back here," I motioned to the back row of seats.

Alice gave me a queer look. "Really, are you sure?" She knew how picky I was about where I was situated in a room.

I glanced down the rows again. "Yes."

The back row was completely empty, much to my satisfaction. Alice tired to sit in the center seats, but I wouldn't let her.

"I want to sit here," I muttered quietly, taking the seats that were offset to the right a bit. Alice rolled her eyes and sat down on my right.

I was glad that she had no idea why I wanted to sit here. If she had known that Edward was sitting directly in front and one seat to the left of me then she would have made me talk to him. I had been smart to not mention Edward to Alice at all.

Edward was deep in conversation with the person sitting to his left. I did not recognize the tall blond guy, but anyone could tell that these two were good friends.

They both laughed at something and I saw Edward smile. An actual, genuine smile. My heart raced. He looked so much more attractive when he smiled. I wished that he would smile at me like that sometime.

Alice gave me a weird look just as the lights went low.

There was a lot of cheering and whooping. Many of the plastic light sabers were waved around in the air as the familiar music filled the theater and the words "Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope" flew across the screen in yellow writing. I relaxed into my seat, bracing my feet against the back of the chair in front of me.

I tired to focus on the movie, but was too distracted by Edward. His eyes glowed with the reflection of the movie screen. A smile was plastered on his face. Every so often he would jab his friend in the side and they would both laugh at something. Occasionally I knew what they were laughing at, the storm trooper wearing tennis shoes, the dice hanging in the Millennium Flacon, and I could share in their amusement.

When we got to the scene that had been reedited to look like Han had only shot because he was shot at everybody booed loudly, a few people threw popcorn at the screen. There was some nervous giggling when Leia kissed Luke; we all knew how that would turn out. There was much cheering when the Death Star was finally blown up at the end.

After the credits rolled the lights came back up. The theater management was giving us ten minuets to buy more candy from them. Alice liked that idea and bounced out of her seat, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

It was several minuets before I realized that Edward was also alone. His friend must have gone out to. Taking a deep breath I leaned forward and poked him in the shoulder.

He turned around, a startled look in his eyes.

"Hey Edward," I smiled brightly.

"Hi." I got that stiff wave again. "What are you doing here?" Wow, an actual question, like he was interested in me.

"Oh, I love Star Wars," I answered truthfully. "I've been waiting for this thing for almost a month." And I am definitely not stalking you, I added in my head. Not at all.

This earned me a slight smile. I resisted the urge to dance in my seat. He smiled at me! I had made him smile.

Both our heads jerked to the left when we heard our friends approaching. Edward's friend looked even taller in comparison to the tiny little Alice. She chipperly talked to him as they walked down the parallel aisles. He looked nervous by Alice's attention, but could not take his eyes off of the little pixie.

"Bella, this is Jasper," Alice squeaked at me. I knew that look in her eyes. She had just met someone special.

Jasper smiled kindly at me and waved, I returned the gesture.

Jasper tossed a box of Red vines to Edward, who caught them easily. Alice knew better and handed me an identical box.

"You two know each other," Alice pointed back and forth between Edward and I.

"Yes," I shrugged, trying to be a blasé as possible. "Edward and I are partners in history class."

Alice saw through my mask of indifference immediately. I saw a split second reaction before she composed herself. "Hi Edward, I'm Alice." She stuck out her hand. "Nice to meet you."

Edward took her hand cautiously, as though he was afraid that it might come off. "Hello."

Alice took the seat to my left this time so that she was sitting right behind Edward; an arms reach away from Jasper. The blond had turned around in his seat and Alice leaned forward so the two could mutter to each other. Edward and I both went back to silence. I tried to think of something else to say, but gave up when the theater went dark again.

I watched him again throughout the entire second movie. He was leaning forward, elbows on his knees and his chin resting on his folded hands. He looked rather thoughtful the whole time. At first I had thought that he was leaning forward in an attempt to get as far away from me as possible, but only after an hour into "The Empire Strikes Back" did I realized that he was leaning forward to get as far away as possible from Alice and Jasper's hushed conversation that was still taking place next to me.

The lights came back on for another ten minuets and Alice and Jasper continued to talk. I let my mind wander to a place that didn't involve Edward so I wouldn't stare at him.

I jumped when Alice tapped me on the shoulder. "Bella," she smiled at me. "Would you mind if Jasper sat back here with me so we could talk?"

"Sure," I shrugged. "I don't care."

"Why don't you sit with Edward?" she suggested. "That way he isn't alone."

I glanced at Edward who was looking back at me with a blank expression. He shrugged to let me know that he didn't care either way.

"Okay," I smiled. Alice wanted to be alone, but she was also trying to get me closer to Edward. Annoying little pixie.

I got up and headed towards the end of the row.

"Where are you going?" Alice laughed at me.

"To the other side," I pointed. Cuz I'm a chicken. Ha ha.

"Just climb over." As she said this Jasper easily hopped over the row of seats and landed next to her. He gave me an encouraging smile.

"Okay." This was going to end badly.

I tried to climb over the seats, but my total lack of coordination made things difficult. I tumbled over the row of chairs but was surprised to land on my feet. Edward had caught me again. He must have assumed that I would fall on my face and stood up just in time to catch me.

The last time he caught me he had just barely grabbed me, leaving a good foot of space between us. This time I seemed to have stumbled directly into him. My hands were braced on his chest and I was pressed completely into him. His arms were wrapped tightly around my waist. He felt stronger than he looked in that bulky sweater.

I blinked up at him and turned red, of course. His magnificent green eyes sparkled but his look was blank. Once I was steady he set me down on my feet and took his hands away. I almost complained but then realized that it would be weird if I were upset that he stopped touching me.

I blushed furiously as I took the empty seat in front of the one that I had previously occupied. I turned in my seat to tell Alice to never let me try to do something that involved coordination again in public and she was smirking at me, almost like she had planned the whole thing. She knew that I would fall. Did she know that he would catch me? The thought left me unsettled.

I pulled my bag into my lap and hugged it as though it were a teddy bear. Thankfully the momentary need for a security blanket passed as the last movie started.

This time I could not stare at Edward. I had no choice but to focus on the movie. But it was difficult. I became hyperaware of him sitting so close to me. I could almost feel this electric current flowing into and out of me as I sat next to him in the dark. But my eyes never left the screen.

He seemed unaffected by my presence. He sat casually as though no one else was in the theater, let alone sitting right next to him. He took no notice of me. He just watched the movie.

The first time we saw Wicket on Endor I squeaked with joy and jumped in my seat. I heard a laugh on my left side and turned to look at Edward. He was shaking his head and rolling his eyes, a playful smile on his face. "Girls always love the Ewoks," he muttered.

Without thinking I gently punched him in the arm, earning me another gentle laugh. The sound sent shivers up my spine.

As the Death Star blew up for the second time I had the feeling that Edward was looking at me. Why on Earth would he be looking at me? My blood pressure skyrocketed. I looked at him, only to realize that he was looking behind me. His eyes met mine in the dark and he nodded his head back as he turned to look back at the screen.

Behind us Alice had fallen asleep. She was curled into Jasper's chest. Jasper had both arms wrapped around her tightly and was watching her breath as she slept. The scene made my heart want to explode out of my chest.

I whipped my head back to the front, a large grin on my face. Edward caught my expression out of the corner of his eye and smiled to.

"That was fun," Alice chirped as we all stood up to leave. She had woken up during the credits and was pretending that she hadn't fallen asleep. "We should all go do something!"

"Alice," I complained, "it's getting late." I showed her my phone, letting her know that it was nearly eleven o'clock.

"Come on, Bella. Don't be boring. Let's go get ice cream!" She bounced at that idea. I wasn't to fond of the idea of her eating any more sugar.

"Fine," I sighed.

No one had to ask Jasper if he was coming, he looked at Alice as though they had been in a committed relationship for months. Jasper looked at Edward. As if reading his friend's mind Edward sighed in defeat as well.

Alice bounced with joy. We followed her across the street to a block of stores that were still open at eleven on a Friday night. Alice and Jasper went in but I begged off, saying that I was too cold for ice cream. Edward just shook his head without an explanation.

"Why don't you two meet us over in the park?" Alice suggested, giving me a meaningful look. "We'll meet you over by the play structure in a few minuets."

Edward and I crossed the street to the park. I tripped halfway across and Edward caught me by my arm as I stumbled. "You need to watch where you're going," he said blandly, releasing me the instant that I was steady.

"Either that or you could just follow me around everywhere," I suggested before I had time to stop the words leaving my mouth. I resisted the urge to smack my hand across my mouth and instead bit down on my lip hard. Edward gave me a strange look out of the corner of his eye and but didn't say anything.

The park looked eerie in the middle of the night. The swings moved back and forth on their own in the gentle February breeze. It looked like the opening scene from a slasher movie. Two unsuspecting college students alone in the park after dark. Cue the scary music and fog. Part of me wished that a man in a hockey mask wielding a chainsaw would show up just to break up the awkward silence that seemed to be following Edward and I around.

I sat down on the metal merry go round. It squeaked under my weight. I used my foot to push myself around in a circle. Edward watched for a moment then began to absentmindedly push the metal bars as they came around, allowing me to pick up my feet and just sit on the large metal disk.

Alice and Jasper approached us, looking giddy. Alice waved at me with her free hand bolted over to the swings, Jasper following closely behind.

Edward stopped pushing me and I spun around twice more before coming to a stop facing the swing set. Alice and Jasper were facing each other on the swings, heads close again. Both were smiling brightly at each other.

With a sigh Edward sat down on the merry go round with me. We watched as Alice shivered under the breeze. Seeing as she refused to bring a jacket anywhere Jasper was forced to pulled her over onto his lap to keep her warm.

I shivered as the breeze hit me. Unlike Alice, I brought a sweater everywhere. I pulled the old black sweater out of my bag and zipped it up, creating a barrier between the cold and myself.

"Forks High School?" Edward said.

It took me a moment to realize that he was referring to the stitching on my jacket that read "Forks High School, Washington."

"Yup," I nodded back. That's what the jacket said.

Edward shook his head. "You didn't go to Forks High School."

"No, I didn't," I admitted. I had grown up in Phoenix, far far away from Forks "Wait," I said a moment later, "how would you know that?"

"Because I went there," Edward said blandly, as if I should have known this already. "Jasper and I grew up in Forks. My graduating class was under one hundred people, I think I would have noticed you."

Part if me doubted that statement. Edward didn't seem to notice anything that wasn't inside his bubble. It had taken me nearly a month to penetrate that bubble that he lived in and I had much more courage and patience then I did in high school. If we had gone to school together I probably wouldn't have bothered.

"My dad is the police chief," I tired to explain the jacket. I had found it lying around his house one day and since then it had become mine.

"Wait a minuet. You're Isabella Swan?" Edward pointed at me, a surprised look on his face.

"Uh huh," I responded. I was cringing. I had hoped to avoid this reaction.

"Jasper," Edward shouted. "This is Isabella Swan," he was still pointing at me.

I saw Jasper's eyes widen. "No way," Jasper shouted back.

Alice gave him a confused look and he began to explain to her quietly.

I was a legend in Forks. The only child of the police chief. I only came to visit him during the summers. Any time I was there I rarely left the house. When I did people always stared. When I had come up to Washington to go to school I had moved into my dad's house permanently so that all of my stuff would be closer. When I was home for the summer I took classes online as an excuse to not leave.

"I can't believe that I never met you before," Edward said.

"I don't get out much when I'm there," I muttered.

"You get out sometimes," he said, thoughtfully. "Otherwise you would miss your yearly visits with my dad in the emergency room."

"Oh god." My accidents were about as famous in Forks as I was. "Your father is Dr. Cullen." I recognized it now. Edward had the same face as his father.

Edward smiled. "Yeah, that's dad." We lapsed into silence for a minuet. "Didn't you get hit by a car last summer?" he asked out of the blue.

"Oh god," I moaned again, covering my face with my hands.

"You did, I remember. Dad said that if the car hadn't hit a fire hydrant first then you would have been paralyzed. Instead you only got a couple of bruises."

"Thank god for fire hydrants," I mumbled into my hands.

Edward laughed. "Maybe I was wrong about you having an inner ear problem. You seem to attract accidents."

"You sound like my dad," I muttered, pulling my hands away from my face. That was another reason I never left the house, bad things seemed to always happen.

"You were right, you do need someone to follow you around and make sure you don't hurt yourself."

I scowled at his comment but then hoped he might take me up on my offer. I had no problem with the idea of him staying with me, even if he was just waiting for something bad to happen to me.

We didn't talk anymore. There was plenty of things that I could have said or asked him, but I was tried and had accomplished more today than I had planned as far as Edward was concerned.

My phone beeped in my bag, startling me. I had a missed call from my mother.

"Alice, it's midnight. Can we please go home?"

Alice pouted at me, but extricated herself from Jasper's grasp. "I'll see you tomorrow night," she murmured to him. He smiled at her and played with a piece of her hair.

Edward stood up and started to walk away from me. "I'll see you on Monday," I called after him.

"See you in class," he agreed, although unenthusiastically, with a smile and a half wave.

Alice grumbled at me as we walked back to the car. I was listening to my mother's message, she had just realized that it was midnight and was apologizing for calling so late and couldn't remember the real reason why she had called in the first place. I rolled my eyes at my scatterbrained mother's nervous tittering and closed my phone.

"You better make this up to me," Alice was still grumpy that I insisted on going home. "And I know exactly how you are going to do it."

Ooo, what's Alice going to make Bella do?

This was probably my favorite chapter to write. Something about them all watching Star Wars made me smile. Edward and Bella are both geeks, it had to be Star Wars to bring them together (kinda). I actually brought them together. I just used Star Wars to do it. Anywho I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. The next one is going to be a tad shorter, but after that they are all around five pages. I'm just rambling now, so bye.

Thanks for reading! :)