Less than two weeks.
I had less than two weeks to get Edward Cullen to ask me out.
I knew this was not good. Edward Cullen, was... well... Edward Cullen. Quarterback of the football team. Bestselling author in-the-making. A girl magnet. And if he was famous, he'd probably be on People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People issue. Like, top ten at the very least.
And me—I was Bella Swan. No extra curriculars whatsoever, average-looking, and definitely not a guy magnet. Actually, the only boyfriend I ever actually had was in ninth grade, and that hadn't turned out so well. He'd taken me to a monster truck rally, and on the ride where you sit in the back of the truck, I fell out and broke my wrist. I doubted that trying to get Edward Cullen to notice me would be any different, if not worse.
"Miss Swan!"
I snapped out of the trance I had been in so abruptly that I dropped my pencil on the ground.
"Yes?" I said to Mr. Banner, who was standing at the front of the room, tapping his foot impatiently.
"What is the answer?"
I blinked. "Uh—to what?"
"The question I just asked."
"Oh... right... uh..." Biology. Think of a biological answer, Bella. "I was thinking, and, I couldn't, er, decide on which, you know, species it is."
He just stared. "Species? Miss Swan, I just asked if you know your blood type or not. I hardly believe yours is of a different species."
A few people snickered, and my face heated up.
"Anyways!" Mr. Banner slapped his ruler down on the table of a girl in the front row, who was leaving a puddle of drool on her assignment. She woke up, and he continued. "This year, at Forks High, we will be having a science fair!"
Everyone groaned.
"There's a prize."
Everyone groaned again. Last year's prize was a fifty dollar certificate to the store that sold mostly all science stuff and a day off from school. The catch was that you either had to spend the entire day working at the science shop, or doing charity work.
"This year's prize is a thousand dollars."
We all were waiting for him to add, "To the Science Store," but he didn't. He left it at that and moved on. Everybody erupted in rounds of talking.
"Shush!" He slapped the ruler on the desk again. "I'm not done speaking! This year, you will also have a partner—"
I automatically looked to the other side of the room at Jessica, since Alice wasn't in this class. She was already looking back at me. She nodded, and we had an understanding. We were going to win this thing.
"—that we will be choosing at random." He must have seen the looks of confusion around the room, because he said, "I have placed your names on a sheet of paper, and put them in a hat. Then, going by the attendance list, backwards, you will each choose a name from the hat, and that will be your partner." Mr. Banner held up a Yankees baseball cap.
I wondered if there was a possible way to rig the hat so I got Jessica's name.
"Miss Wilson!" Mr. Banner gestured to the girl who had recently woken up from her nap. "You're up first."
The girl, Lisa Wilson, looked nervous as she took the hat from Mr. Banner. Shakily, she reached inside the baseball cap and pulled out a tiny slip of paper. After waiting a few seconds, she unfolded it, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Samantha Eddis," she read aloud. I was guessing they were friends, because they high-fived each other afterwards. I could only pray I'd be that lucky.
A few more kids went up, without picking Jess, and, finally, Mr. Banner said, "Miss Swan. You're turn."
I walked up to the front of the room, my knees almost about to give out on me. With my luck, I'd pick Rosalie. And then that'd probably ruin my chances of winning the thousand dollars, since Rosalie wouldn't even try—her family had enough money as it was.
"Go ahead." He thrust the cap towards me.
I repeated Jessica's name over and over again in my head as I dug around inside the cap. Jessica Stanley. Jessica Stanley. Jessica Stanley. Jessica Stanley.
Five seconds past, and, eventually, I decided on a slip of paper. I jerked it out of the hat and held it in my sweaty palms, just for a few moments. If this was Rosalie's, I was going to strangle someone.
Gingerly, I opened the paper.
Dammit.
I wished I got Rosalie's.
"Who did you get, Miss Swan?" Mr. Banner asked.
"I, um..." I sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Edward Cullen."
Everyone seemed to gasp at the same time, Rosalie's most audible. And to hear her surprised tone, was almost worth it all.
Almost.
***
Thankfully, after that, the class ended. I talked with Edward just a little bit the rest of the day. We didn't decide what we were going to do for the science project, but he said he wanted to do something about the environment, which I thought was really sweet of him.
As I was walking out to my truck, I saw Rosalie's sheep-like followers, Ginger and Hailey, standing beside my truck. I noted they were holding something—dark blue, not very big...
That was my bag!
What were they doing with my bag? I had left it in my locker! How had they even gotten it out?
When they saw that I had seen them, the two of them took off, my bag in hand. I dropped my binder and ran, hot on their trail, yelling, "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING WITH MY BAG?"
I swear if they were doing something for Rosalie...
They hurled it into the blue, smelly dumpster on the other side of the parking lot. I stopped in my tracks and just watched as they dashed away, back through the lot, and into the school again, giggling and throwing their shiny hair behind their shoulders.
Ohmigod. My bag is in the dumpster. That has my homework in it. That has my TEXTBOOKS in it. My sixty dollar, hardcover textbooks. In the dumpster. With yesterday's lunches. With a bunch of garbage. WITH GARBAGE!!"
Hastily, I glanced around to make sure nobody was looking. Was I really going to do this?
Well, I had to get my bag, didn't I? I would get detention without that bag.
I made my way over to the dumpster, and the smell of old lunchmeat got thicker and thicker with every step. By the time I was just a few yards away, I had pulled my T-shirt up over my nose and mouth, and was trying not to breathe at all.
"Oh God," I muttered, slowly lifting the roof of the dumpster up. The stench that arose was worse than a locker room full of sweaty hockey equipment. "Ohmigod."
Carefully, half my face still covered by my shirt, I looked in the dumpster. What I saw, mostly, was no surprise: bags full of trash, some of it spilling out; some of it even had green stuff sprouting from inside. A few odd bugs crawled and flew around, which didn't help me at all. My bag had fallen on top of a few piles of trash, near the back of the dumpster.
I shut the lid and squinted around the lot again. When my eyes stopped on a bucket, hiding behind a thick patch of grass, I rushed over, and back, and placed it in between the lid of the dumpster and the ledge, propping the lid up so I could hoist myself onto the ledge, without my head touching the top, and grab my bag.
"Come on," I grumbled. My fingers just touched the strap of the bag. I pulled myself in a little more. "Come on!"
My hand grasped it, and I smiled to myself. Yes. I began to pull, but the trash pile holding my bag up suddenly decided to collapse, and so it fell deeper into the dumpster, onto the floor, into God knows what.
"Shit," I said aloud. Now I'd have to go in even more.
After making sure the bucket was still in its position, I used the ledge of the dumpster to push myself in deeper. It got to the point where my entire upper body was inside, and I was just hanging on by my legs. The smell by now was overwhelming, and I was forced to hold my breath as long as I could—then, when I couldn't any longer, I'd take in one big breath, and start over.
The bag was only a few centimetres away, now. I could almost reach it. I wiggled my legs a little to give me more momentum. On the count of three, I would pull with my arms, and strain my legs so I wouldn't fall in. Then I'd jump out of the dumpster, drive home, and take a long, relaxing shower.
"One... two... three!"
I lunged.
But at the exact time I let go of the wall with my hands, someone from outside said my name.
My legs lost their hold on the outside of the dumpster, and they slid sideways, knocking the bucket over. The lid began to close, and before it could break my legs, I shoved my whole body inside of the dumpster, landing on the piles of garbage and the flies and creepy crawlers.
Very pleasant.
"Uh—Bella?" The dumpster's top gradually creaked open, to reveal Edward Cullen, and his best friend, Emmett, standing above me. "What are you doing in the dumpster?"
Rosalie Hale's minions put my bag in here, and I needed to get it.
That was a stupid answer. I couldn't say that.
"I—uh—" I stood up and jumped out, keeping my distance, because I was pretty sure now I stunk as much as the garbage. "I was doing research."
"For... what?"
Yes, for what, Bella? What were you doing research for in the DUMPSTER?
"Um, you know." I nodded, like it was obvious.
Edward glanced at Emmett, as if to ask him if he understood. "No... I don't know."
Neither do I.
"OUR PROJECT!" I cried out so loudly, Emmett looked taken aback. "Our project, of course! The science one! Remember? You wanted to do one on the environment so I was, uh... looking at what is recyclable and... decomposable... that kind of thing!"
"Oh." Edward looked at the dumpster, and then back at me. "I see. So is that what we're doing our project on?"
I put on my sweetest smile and flipped my hair over my shoulder, like Alice had suggested. A banana peel fell off my shoulder. "Yes!"
Then I walked to my truck, not caring about my bag.
***
"Did you have a good day, Bells?" my dad, Charlie, asked as soon as I walked in the door. Then he immediately covered his nose. "What is that smell?"
"Please," I said, already on my way to start a shower. "Don't ask."
A/N: Sooo, what did you guys think?